The Staten Island FerryHawks are as happy to have Wally Backman as the umpires of his 10-year-old grandson\u2019s baseball games are to be rid of him as a heckler.<\/p>\n
The last two years proved to Backman and his family that his competitive juices still are flowing. <\/p>\n
And, if the 66-year-old former Mets great is going to be managing from a dugout, he only wants to do it in New York.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy time in baseball is not over,\u201d Backman told The Post on Monday, shortly after he was announced as the manager of the FerryHawks. \u201cI\u2019ve been a lifer. I love the game. And I take a lot of pride in winning. Losing sucks. This is a team that has struggled, and I accept the challenge. I believe I can turn this team into a winner.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wally Backman is pictured during an introductory press conference June 15. Heather Khalifa for NY Post<\/p>\n
The FerryHawks \u2014 formerly a Single-A affiliate of the Yankees \u2014 are off to an 8-40 start in the independent Atlantic League, which prioritizes winning over developing young players for the majors. <\/p>\n
The standings reset July 3 for the start of the second half.<\/p>\n
Upon his return to the Atlantic League \u2014 where he managed the New Britain Bees (2018) and Long Island Ducks (2019-23) \u2014 the notoriously fiery Backman jokingly asked league president Rick White for a few freebie ejections to get reacclimated.<\/p>\n
\u201cI try to teach the players like major leaguers \u2014 I\u2019m not going to let a kid throw 140 pitches,\u201d Backman said before boarding a bus for a nine-hour ride and gathering his thoughts for his first team meeting. \u201cAll they have to do is YouTube me and they\u2019ll find out. [The meeting] will be about winning No. 1 and basically no bulls\u2013t. You\u2019re never going to win every game, but we\u2019re not going to get outhustled and outplayed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Backman is a beloved member of the 1986 World Series champions who are celebrating their 40-year anniversary at a time when the Mets are mired in last place. <\/p>\n
Wally Backman is pictured at his introductory press conference for Staten Island on June 15. Heather Khalifa for NY Post<\/p>\n
He was last part of the organization as its Triple-A manager in 2016.<\/p>\n
Does Backman still dream of returning to the Mets? <\/p>\n
Or testing his managerial chops in MLB, as he nearly did in 2005 before the Diamondbacks fired him four days into his tenure when years-old legal problems were uncovered?<\/p>\n
Wally Backman is pictured during a 1986 game for the Mets. Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d Backman said. \u201cThey had their opportunity with me. I should\u2019ve had my opportunity \u2014 didn\u2019t happen. I\u2019m in New York. Trust me, this is probably the only place I would come because \u2026 the knowledge of sports that the people have in New York keeps driving you to be better and better and better.\u201d<\/p>\n
FerryHawks chairman John Catsimatidis teased an improved fan experience that includes \u201cbetter players, better food and valet parking\u201d with the \u201ckinks\u201d ironed out soon. <\/p>\n
Wally Backman is pictured at spring training for the Mets in 2013. Anthony J. Causi<\/p>\n
Why did he target Backman and lure him out of his motorhome and fishing lifestyle?<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s always been used to being the best,\u201d Catsimatidis said. \u201cNew Yorkers know his name, especially Staten Islanders and Brooklynites.\u201d<\/p>\n
Backman has already talked to four former major leaguers \u2014 including infielder Jose Miranda, who set an MLB record with a hit in 12 straight at-bats \u2014 about joining him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s nice when you know a lot of people in MLB that will give you a little bit of info [on minor league free agents] before other people have it,\u201d Backman said, \u201cso we\u2019ll have \u2014 a lot of times \u2014 first shot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wally Backman is pictured while managing the Long Island Ducks in 2019. Anthony J Causi<\/p>\n
Backman\u2019s return to New York comes at a time when the city is electrified by the NBA champion Knicks.<\/p>\n
The Mets now own the city\u2019s fourth-longest championship drought, but the winning formula hasn\u2019t changed from 1986 to 2026, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cChemistry,\u201d Backman said of the Mets-Knicks parallels. \u201cWhen you come back from a 29-point deficit (in Game 4) to win a championship, that shows me something. That\u2019s heart and desire that comes from within players. A lot of things are analytics, which I believe in. People think I\u2019m totally old school. But you tell me when you can measure this [heart] and I\u2019ll put it into the analytics. Because you can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
The FerryHawks will host an in-season tryout June 23 for high-end college and minor league free agents.<\/p>\n
Backman\u2019s first home game is June 24, and the team will honor the 1986 Mets and host Lee Mazzilli on June 27 at SIUH Community Park.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Staten Island FerryHawks are as happy to have Wally Backman as the umpires of his 10-year-old grandson\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268397,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,319,134,136,135,103654],"class_list":["post-268396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-sports","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news","tag-wally-backman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}