Being the New York Mets manager has never been an easy task. It rarely promises a career of longevity, no matter how well you do. Most recently, Buck Showalter was fired one year after winning the National League Manager of the Year award.
New York Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns officially took over his new post on October 2nd. Hours prior to Stearns' arrival, the Mets parted ways with manager Buck Showalter, opening the door for Stearns and his new front office to hire their own dugout CEO.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, no player had ever gone 5 for 5 in a World Series game. So, when pinch hitter, Jace Peterson walked to the plate on Saturday night in Game 2 for the Arizona Diamondbacks against the Texas Rangers, something was strange.
Monday night was a dream scenario for the Texas Rangers, and a nightmare for the Houston Astros. It was also a nightmare for a lot of New York baseball fans.
The New York Mets have had more than their fair share of dysfunctional general managers throughout the years. From Joe McDonald allowing "The Franchise" Tom Seaver to be traded in 1977 to hiring Jared Porter, in between his inappropriate text messages to reporters, the Mets GM position has been anything but "Amazin'."
The big winner these days in sports wagering is the State of New York. In the gambling report released by state Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli on Wednesday, it revealed that the Empire State is far exceeding expected tax revenues from sports wagering. Sounds great? Well, there is a good side and a bad side to every story.
Over the past decade, the development of the daily line-up card, more importantly who's on it and where, has become more of an organizational decision, rather than one that sits solely with the team's manager. For a grizzled veteran skipper, like Buck Showalter, that has been a dooming change.