New York Mets Starting Lineup: 1986 World Series Game 6
2. Wally Backman, 2B
Second baseman Wally Backman would play in only 124 games for the 1986 New York Mets while hitting .320 with 29 RBI. His job was to get on base, though, and that he did with a .364 on-base percentage.
Much like his teammates, he was young and brash and was noted for his hard, in-your-face style of play. New York fans took to that and he quickly became a favorite. And what he couldn’t produce in the way of run production (three career home runs and 240 RBI over 13 years), he made up for with his hard-nosed play and the fact there was a ton of hitting talent coming up behind him.
He did nothing of consequence in Game Six, going 0-for-4. Other than a sacrifice and four assists in the field, his name is not mentioned in the box score.
In 1989, the Mets pretty much dumped him by sending him to the Minnesota Twins for three minor league players. He spent one year with the Twins and then played with four other teams before calling it quits in 1993.
He would then embark on a one-man crusade to become a manager in the big leagues. His career as a manager includes stints with 12 teams, several of which were in the Mets’ farm system. In fact, he was on the verge of quitting when he finally begged the Mets to take him on, which they did in 2010, but forcing him to start with their low level Class A team in Brooklyn.
From there, he proceeded to rise through the ranks of the Mets system, making it all the way to the top at Triple-A Las Vegas. The trouble was, though, that as this was going on and the years were ticking by, Backman only watched as the Mets continued to hire others when an opening occurred in New York
At the same time, it was really more that Backman kept shooting himself in the foot. In 2004 for instance, he was hired by the Diamondbacks and then just four days after he was introduced as manager, he was fired following revelations he was arrested twice and struggled with financial problems. The fact that he withheld this, despite having gone through a series of interviews with their front office, probably doomed his chances of career advancement forever.
More recently in September of this year, Backman was either fired or resigned from his job with the Mets depending on who you want to believe. Backman said this to ESPN:
"“When you work for an organization and do everything, you want to be respected for what you do. I just felt for my time being there, the respect wasn’t there. I could be wrong. They could say different. They could say they respected me. The things that went on this year turned my head in the direction it was time to move on.”"
But the Mets insist that he was openly insubordinate and refused to follow instructions from back east about who to play where and how often they should play. The words are still flying back and forth, but never the twain shall meet again.