NAILS: HOJO METS’ MAN
Brings hammer down on Terry, wants Johnson to save season
NAILS is ready to put the nail in Terry Collins’ Mets managing tenure.
Lenny Dykstra, the former outfielder on the 1986 World Series champion Mets, told the Daily News Wednesday that it’s time for Collins to go while the 2017 Mets season can still be salvaged. And Dykstra said he has the perfect candidate to replace Collins: Howard Johnson.
“Terry Collins has lost the team, and the players have no confidence. It’s pretty obvious,” Dykstra boomed, less than 24 hours after the Mets lost another game, this time to the Rangers to drop to 24-32. “It almost seems like he’s managing from a textbook.”
Dykstra and Johnson, or HoJo, were teammates on that ’86 title team, and Johnson also won a World Series ring with the Tigers in 1984. Johnson is currently managing the high Single-A Down East Wood Ducks, a Rangers affiliate in the Carolina League. He was the Mets’ first base coach in 2007 and was later the club’s hitting coach until 2011. He also had several coaching posts in the Mets’ minor-league system in the early 2000s and was the Mariners hitting coach in 2014. Dykstra has been taking his rants to social media to opine on the state of the Mets and Collins’ job managing the team, and he said the response he’s gotten from fans has been overwhelmingly supportive of his opinions.
But for his part, Johnson said he is focusing his energy on his current job, although he added that managing at the major league level — something Johnson has never done — is “always in the back of your mind.”
“I don’t have a Facebook account, but I heard Lenny has been posting stuff,” Johnson told The News Wednesday. “He called me the other day, and he said he thinks it should happen. I have a job with Texas, and I feel good over here. No disrespect to Terry. It’s not a good place for me to comment on someone else’s job.”
Dykstra was more direct: “Dude, HoJo was a major league coach for five seasons (with the Mets). The fans love him. The players love him. More importantly, the Mets are still in this race, and the fans don’t deserve to go out there and be miserable.”
Dykstra, 54, who has had his share of legal troubles following his playing days, said that he personally doesn’t have anything against Collins (the Mets’ manager since 2011 and who is in the final year of his contract), but that he’s tired of seeing the club scuffle and lose. He said Johnson is the ideal candidate because, unlike Dykstra and some of the other ’86 Mets who were known to be hell-raisers, Johnson was a teetotaler on all fronts.
“He’s a great husband, a great father. HoJo never cussed, never took pills, never chased women,” Dykstra said. “That’s the exact kind of guy that fits the Mets. I think that’s why Wally Backman never got the job. And this is not an attack on Terry Collins personally. He’s probably a great guy. But we’re not talking about making new friends. We’re talking about winning games in the toughest city. He’s not the guy.”
Dykstra said he has been particularly irked by some of Collins’ managerial decisions over the last two years, including leaving Matt Harvey on the mound late in Game 5 of the 2015 World Series. The Royals rallied and clinched the title. And Dykstra said Collins’ decision to pinchhit Eric Campbell, a righty batter, for lefty James Loney in last year’s wild card game against Giants southpaw Madison Bumgarner was a fiasco. Campbell struck out, while Loney had drawn a walk earlier in the game. The Mets lost 3-0 and were booted from the postseason.
“Collins has done it all the wrong way. I’m curious to see what he does when (Yoenis) Cespedes comes back (from the disabled list). Does he move (Michael) Conforto to the bench? He’s only one of their best f---ing hitters. The Mets need life, and I think the players are miserable,” Dykstra said. “Dude, do fans want four more months of this misery? It’s time to make the move.”