After five years outside of affiliated baseball, Wally Backman is back where he belongs.
The New York Mets are expected to announce next week that their former second baseman has been tapped to manage the Class-A Brooklyn Cyclones, a move that the 50 year-old hopes leads to bigger and better things.
After being one of the hottest managerial prospects in baseball in 2004, Backman was named manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Yet he was dismissed after only four days due to alleged domestic disputes and a bankruptcy surfaced.
Out of affiliated baseball, the former “Wildboy” of 1986 bounced around the independent leagues, managing the South Georgia Peanuts in 2006 and then the Joilet Jackhammers from 2007-2009. Each year Backman was a great success with his teams and each year he was looking to get back with an affiliated team, but to no avail.
That was until Mets COO Jeff Wilpon decided to give the sparkplug a second chance by offering him an interview during the last week of the 2209 season. Although, it was thought Backman would get the Double-A Binghamton job, he was given Brooklyn, an affiliate the Mets always want to be successful.
The official announcement could come next week sometime with a possible press conference at KeySpan Park.
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