Stormy minor-league tenure ends for Backman
Infielder from Mets' 1986 title team quits as manager of independent team
ALBANY, Ga. - Wally Backman joined the independent South Coast League hoping to show he deserved another chance to manage in the big leagues. He didn’t make it through the season.
Backman resigned Tuesday as manager of the South Georgia Peanuts after run-ins with umpires, a press box argument with another team’s radio announcer and a forfeited game when his team refused to return to the field after a brawl with rival Macon.
Having already served suspensions totaling 14 games, Backman stepped down after leading the Peanuts to the first-half title. They were leading the second-half race, as well, with just three weeks remaining in the league’s inaugural season.
“Things on the field, I can’t say I will ever apologize for them,” Backman said during a news conference, according to the Albany Herald. “That’s always been my nature. I have some regrets. I don’t know that I need to go into those.”
The final brouhaha occurred Monday, when the league handed 10-game suspensions to a pair of Backman’s players, outfielder Doc Brooks and second baseman Joey Hooft, saying their drug tests showed a diluted sample of a masking agent.
Backman angrily accused the league’s medical director of “not doing his job properly.” Jamie Toole, the SCL’s chief executive officer, responded, “Unfortunately, we have a manager who cannot control his players.”
After meeting over lunch Tuesday, both sides agreed that Backman should resign. Coach Larry Olenberger was appointed interim manager for the remainder of the season and the playoffs.
“There are a lot of bumps in the road in the first year of any league, and they are getting through those,” said Backman, who attended a joint news conference with Toole. “It is tough on the players. It is tough on myself. It is tough on the coaching staff. But we have a mutual agreement that I should step down.”
The brief tenure is likely to hurt Backman’s chances of hooking up with a major league organization, though he said, “I hope not. That is a bridge I will have to cross down the road.”
Backman had a long playing career, helping the New York Mets win the 1986 World Series, and was a top minor-league manager when the Arizona Diamondbacks hired him shortly after the 2004 season.
But Backman was fired four days later after reports surfaced that he had been arrested twice and struggled with financial problems.
He was out of the game for the past two seasons and admitted that no one wanted to hire him. Backman finally took a job with the six-team SCL, an unaffiliated league with franchises in Georgia, Florida and South Carolina.
The Peanuts were in first place throughout his tenure. They won the first-half title at 33-11 and were leading the second half at 15-8 when he stepped down.
Backman also had three players signed by major-league organizations — more than any other SCL team and one the league’s primary goals.
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But Backman’s feisty demeanor kept getting him into trouble.
He received a three-game suspension for bumping an umpire during a June 12 game at Aiken, then sat out three more games for arguing in the press box with the broadcaster and general manager of the Anderson Joes on June 26.
Backman took an eight-game suspension on behalf of his coaching staff for pulling the Peanuts off the field and forfeiting a July 20 game at Macon after the bench-clearing melee. The manager had already been ejected from the game for a separate incident.
Backman plans to return to his home in Oregon. The Peanuts are assured of a spot in the SCL championship series, which begins Sept. 1, but they’ll go into the postseason with a new manager.
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