Wally Backman blames Sandy Alderson for his lack of a managerial job in a major league organization:
Wally Backman will be managing in the Mexican League this summer, making sure to say he’s “grateful” to have a job — any job — in the aftermath of an ugly parting with the Mets. Backman will be leaving for south of the border in about a month, convinced he’s been blackballed by GM Sandy Alderson.
It’s an explosive charge, and not one that Backman makes lightly. But after a long winter of being turned down by other clubs, despite a willingness to start at the minor leagues’ lowest levels, Backman believes it’s his former boss who’s responsible.
Actually, Backman says it’s not a guess or a hunch. He claims a friend in the commissioner’s office has tipped him off that Alderson is working against him.
“There’s been a bad roadblock, and I know where it’s coming from,” Backman said by telephone from his home in central Oregon. “In the last phone call I had with Sandy [in September] he said, ‘I will do anything I can to help you.’ But he is not an honest man. People are telling me, ‘Sandy has it in for you. You’re being blackballed.’”
Backman had legal troubles in the past, but I have not heard anything about Backman having problems in a long time. Alderson is not commenting.
Backman may very well be a Billy Martin type manager, someone who can get a team to win but can’t last long with an organization. That type of manager does not seem to be en vogue right now.
what Backman called being “blackballed” may simply be Alderson responding the inquiries from other GMs by saying he’s not very good at his job.
Tom » Indeed. I keep getting the feeling there is a deeper story here, but no has a handle on it yet.
I will always remember Backman telling the media during the ’86 NLCS that he thought Dave Smith was a mediocre pitcher. When asked to respond Smith said, “Who’s Wally Backman?”
It is puzzling on many levels..the “criticism” that led to the resignation/firing seems unwarranted and as smart as Alderson is, it seems that the reasons given are not sufficient to want him gone. I wonder if it is as simple as a personality issue?
From what I’ve read elsewhere, Backman was trying to win in the minors, and not as focused on player development. Which reminds me of the conflict between Commissioner Landis and Branch Rickey, as told in the Bill James Historical Abstract. Landis wanted the minor leagues to exist for their own sake, Rickey wanted them for player development.