November 03, 2004
Gee, Wally, that's not swell.
It appears that Wally Backman has been in trouble in the recent past.
Backman acknowledged that he was arrested in 2001 after an altercation with a female family friend at his home in Prineville, Ore. He said he agreed to plead guilty to fourth-degree assault. He was placed on 12 months' probation, ordered to undergo an anger management evaluation and donated $1,000 to the local Boys and Girls Club.
Backman was arrested on a charge of driving under the influence in Kennewick, Wash., in 1999, when he was manager of the Tri-City franchise of the independent Western League. He said he fought the charge for two years before pleading guilty.
He also has had financial problems, and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy last year, The Republic reported. Backman said many of the financial problems, including several tax liens he said he has paid, were caused by dealings of his then-wife that he was unaware of.
(Emphasis added.)
Maybe the DUI is actually a positive indicator. Bill James wrote in the introduction to his marvelous book, The Bill James Guide to Baseball Managers:
Managers are fascinating people. Of the twenty-five greatest managers of all time, at least eighteen were alcoholics. Is this a coincidence, or is there a reason for it? Should we, in looking to hire a manager, make sure he has Betty Ford on his resume?
I'd like to think not.
Posted by David Pinto at
10:22 AM
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Why is he an alcoholic? Just b/c he got a DUI once? It's not something to be proud of, but he's not managing choir boys either. I realize you're probably just trying to generate content for your blog, but point A doesn't necessarily imply point B.
No, but A is a positive indicator of B - - and that is what Dave was saying.
i think that the interesting sentence is "he fought the DUI charges for 2 years."
how can you fight charges like that? and for 2 years? i mean, that's weird. i mean, the breathalizer is no argument, like dna, isn't it?
and i believe it about him not knowing what his ex-wife was spending. because the exact same thing happened to one of my uncles.
You know what, forget the DUI and really forget the banruptcy, so what if he's lousy with money he's the manager not the GM, but I have big problems with guys who get nailed with assault charges when the victim was a woman.
Alcoholic or not, who cares.
Doesn't pay his bills who cares.
Beats up girls, go to he**. Don't know if H-e-ll would make it past your standards and practices David.
