As Mets struggle, can Mickey take media heat?
WATCHING MICKEY Callaway trying to grin his way through postgame press conferences, after fiascos in Milwaukee and Atlanta on SportsNet New York, was painful.
Listening to Mike (Sports Pope) Francesa on WFAN describe the Mets manager as an “odd guy” who doesn’t provide “real answers” is telling.
Compared to Terry Collins, who brought his heart to the microphone, delivered the quote, and often openly challenged The Man, aka Sandy Alderson and the front office, Callaway is an “odd guy.” In front of a camera, he is detached with a case of hold-backitis. His answers are shallow.
Callaway may be playing it close to the vest at the behest of Mets brass who had grown tired of Collins’ honesty and rapid fire verbal stylings. Callaway’s ability to keep a lid on things might be one of the reasons the Mets hierarchy hired him. Yet that doesn’t mean Callaway is fronting what will ultimately be a successful media strategy.
“Are you tired of watching that horse---- managing yet?” One MLB TV analyst asked me before I could even get one question out.
That might be an extreme take on Callaway. It does show how fast a rookie manager can lose the media’s benefit of the doubt. The dreck road trip, and the way he handled the bullpen, started the wheel turning in the wrong direction.
On the Wednesday edition of SNY’s “Baseball Night in New York,” Nelson Figueroa was all over the way Callaway butchered the bullpen. He also reacted to other poor decisions by the manager. “It (his recent bullpen decisions) shows me it’s spinning out of control. The game is speeding up for Mickey as well,” Figueroa said. “…He has to take a step back and say: ‘Hey, I made a mistake,’ own up to it.”
Not admitting a blunder is one thing, presenting a halfbaked spin is quite another. Callaway sometimes offers incomplete explanations that may be designed to protect players but are not always believable.
Callaway is not at the point where he is claiming blue skies when it’s pouring out, but leaves us with a feeling he’s taken us on a ride and dumped us on a dead-end street.
Like in the Monday postgame session, after the afternoon 4-3 loss to Atlanta. Callaway said he pre-planned using Seth Lugo, who eventually gave up the game-winning homer to Charlie Culberson, for a two-inning save if starter Jacob deGrom got through the seventh inning. If JDG had left earlier, Callaway said he would have mixed and matched and then had Jeurys Familia close. Callaway said in that case, Lugo would have pitched the first two innings of the second game of the doubleheader.
Jim Duquette, on the SNY postgame show, wasn’t buying Callaway’s explanation. He did, however, stop just short of calling it utter nonsense. Callaway eventually admitted that at the time, he knew about Noah Syndergaard’s finger injury and used Lugo for those two innings to stretch him out so he could replace Thor in the rotation.
Even that reasoning sounded like jive, another excuse. Now the spotlight on Callaway, especially from those who have already started questioning his credibility, will brighten. The Mets manager better hope he can handle the media better than he’s handled his bullpen.
BAD RADIO
Do advertisers who pay to buy time on sportstalk radio ever listen to it?
The guess here is no. If they did, they would likely be beside themselves, calling their media buyers, and asking: “What are you wasting my money on?” The notion came to us after hearing the umpty-umpth edition of the same question: “Hi, I’m a first-time-caller, long-time-moron. Who is the best player in NBA history, LeBron James or Michael Jordan?”
Then the Gasbag(s) running the show unleash contrived passion to present their case for either player. It’s bogus and boring. Its only value is to kill time on shows that are too long to begin with. It’s filler. And another reason why local sports talk ratings are down across the board.
PERFECT STORM
The countdown to NBC Sports’ coverage of next Saturday’s (June 9) Belmont Stakes, where Justify hopes to join Seattle Slew as the only undefeated Triple Crown winners, is underway. Unique as a Triple Crown winner is, Larry Collmus, the voice of New York Racing, has been here before when he called American Pharoah’s historic Belmont win in 2015, making the horse the only Triple Crown winner in the last 37 years. Collmus will be looking through the binocs, with 1520 million watching on NBC, when Justify breaks from the gate and takes his crack at the Crown.
Even if he calls a Belmont win for Justify, can it top the moment of Pharoah’s Belmont triumph?
“It would certainly be amazing to be able to call two Triple Crown winners knowing how precious few there have been over the years but I can’t imagine anything that could top calling American Pharoah’s Triple Crown after a 37-year drought,” Collmus emailed Thursday from his perch at Belmont. “It was an incredible feeling to be fortunate enough to narrate one of the most historic events in all of sports.”
With Justify racing for history, NBC has altered its coverage schedule. The show was supposed to go from 5 p.m.-7 p.m. but will now start an hour earlier and run to 7:15 p.m.
GRAY MATTERS
Until she has a relapse, WFAN’s Maggie Gray is bringing some form of sanity to the Valley of the Stupid. That’s not easy, especially when you work with two max Gasbags — Bart Scott and Chris Carlin.
Tuesday, after hearing Syndergaard’s finger was messed up (strained ligament), Carlin kneejerked, going on a verbal tear about the Mets’ well-chronicled history of injuries. Fortunately, Gray stopped Carlin’s high-volume exercise in repetition, saying: “They placed him (Syndeergard) on the 10-day DL. I don’t want to make
it like his head fell off.” Nice.
DON DUMB
Don La Greca, one of Michael Kay’s wingnuts on ESPN-98.7, must be auditioning for a gig on Unsolved Mysteries. During an elongated Mets rant, he actually said “the Mets killed Gil Hodges.” This is stunning information. DLG, realizing his mouth had outmaneuvered his brain, quickly backed off this “shocking” bit of “reporting.”