Still No Word From Jerry Manuel; Might Backman Be The Next Boss In Mets Dugout?

John Harper has an insightful article in today's Daily News, where he believes the Wilpon's might look to hire a GM who has interest in Backman as the Mets manager.

As we all know, I have been a Backman Card Carrying Member since the Mets were looking for Art Howe's replacement. Harper's article was a delayed echo of why I want Backman as the next skipper at the Mets helm: he is fiery, will not accept complacency with losses, and most importantly will not allow his players to be intimidated by opposing clubs, most notably the Phillies.

Much has been said and written about Utley's slide into Tejada last month. I had no problem with the slide. Was it borderline? Yes, but Utley did his job. The Mets response...nothing. A lot of crying in the papers, but no one stood up to the Phils. Beltran attempted retribution the following day, sliding hard into second, but he missed both the second baseman and shortstop. The problem wasn't that he missed, no - the problem was that was where the Mets revenge ended.

Is there anyone out there that thinks that would have been OK if Backman was ruddering the ship? Not me. I can envision Backman telling one of his pitchers' to put one in Utley's ear the next AB. That's baseball. Not crying in the papers.

Harper believes that the Wilpon's won't choose the next manager, but will make it well known that Wally is their guy...for a lot of reasons: He is a winner, a former Met, has good baseball instincts, and has passion like we haven't seen since Bobby Valentine, and would come cheaper than Joe Torre or Bobby Valentine - both of which would be poor fits for this team.

With such a young team: Davis, Tejada, Duda, Thole, Niese, Parnell, Pelfrey, etc. - Backman should be able to instill in them what has been missing for so long. He might not be able to get into Wright or Reyes' head, but if he has enough of the youngsters attention, it will rub off.

With all that being said, it has been very quiet on the Jerry Manuel front. Not being re-signed and told he would not be back with the Mets on Monday, there has not been one statement nor word from "Gangsta J." Although he needed to go and I questioned his baseball acumen daily, I did like Manuel. He handled the press better than any recent Mets manager, and his demeanor could be calming. Unfortunately too calming. Too calm to the point where the intensity of the team was gone, as well as his control over the team. I certainly hope Jerry finds happiness and another position. I think he's a good guy, just not a good manager.

The Mets hope to put an end to the GM search before the start of the World Series. That would be great. I just don't want them to rush to a decision. There appears to be many quality people available. I believe Sandy Alderson might be the leading candidate, but there are some other good names out there that could prove interesting. I just hope they don't go saber metrics. I want a good baseball person who can use stats along with being a great judge of talent and contract negotiator.

Stay tuned, the ride has just begun!