The secret of successful managing is to keep the five guys who hate you away from the four guys who haven’t made up their minds.

As usual, Casey Stengel knew what he was talking about. But here in 2016 with the New York Mets, it’s a fair question to ask if anyone on the team hates manager Terry Collins. Only those in the clubhouse on a daily basis can accurately answer that question. But if you posed that question to 100 Mets fans, the near unanimous, if not unanimous, answer would be, “No.”

It seems there are two reasons why that is. First, the team is comprised of a ton of guys who are low maintenance, quality people. Leading the list is David Wright and Curtis Granderson but they are hardly alone. And the second reason is that the media loves Collins and they have a vested interest not to do anything to paint him in a less than flattering light.

Terry CollinsIt’s rare for Collins to do something … bizarre. He’s not likely to rip a base out of ground and hurl it into the outfield, a la Lou Piniella. He’s not going to don fake glasses and a moustache and sit in the dugout after he’s been ejected, like Bobby Valentine. And to the best of my knowledge, while managing the Mets he’s never gone on a profanity-laced tirade against any member of the media after they asked him a question, like Tommy Lasorda, Lee Elia and countless others.

Instead, he generally does his job with good humor and he treats the media with respect. There’s a lesson in there somewhere. So, if players aren’t bitching about the manager to the media and the manager treats the media with respect – what’s to be gained by saying anything less than complementary about him?

So much of our opinions are shaped by what gets reported by the mainstream media. If all of the beat writers say something nice about you and the SNY broadcasters say good things about you and both the opposition and national media say good things about you – is it any wonder that fans have a good opinion?

None of this is meant to say that people shouldn’t have a good opinion of Collins.

But let’s go back to the quote that started this piece. Have you ever heard a newspaper man or broadcaster say anything bad about Stengel? I haven’t. Yet this beloved manager talked about having five guys on his team who hated him and four guys who could go either way. Is it so outrageous to think that a similar situation, if not those exact numbers, exists on the 2016 Mets?

If you work in a place with more than a few employees, think about the 25 people you interact with most. There’s likely a handful that you really click with, the great majority that you get along with fine but don’t have a ton to do with and then a handful that you dread bumping into in the hall or getting an email from with their name on it. And most of us have had bosses that we would do anything for and bosses that we thought were not very well suited for the job at hand.

My preference for a boss is to have someone who gives you the freedom to do your job without standing over you telling you what to do each second of the day. Others need more guidance or structure from their superiors. And some need bosses to keep them on the straight and narrow. There are probably other managerial styles that you’ve encountered in your life. Wouldn’t it reason that these would apply to baseball managers, too? I may prefer Davey Johnson, you may prefer Gil Hodges and a third person might need Dallas Green.

It’s difficult for me to believe that the Mets have 25 guys who love and adore Collins.

These thoughts came to me after hearing Collins’ session with the media where he unapologetically proclaimed himself to be old school with no use for anything beyond Triple Crown numbers. It’s very likely that this statement resonated with the vast majority of people who will make the 25-man roster. But it’s also likely that this isn’t unanimous.

And while this issue resonates with me, it’s likely there are numerous other issues that occur during the regular season where 25 guys and the coaches are living under the microscope that resonate with the players. And it just doesn’t make sense to me that there aren’t a handful of guys who roll their eyes, mutter and actively complain about decisions Collins makes throughout the year. It’s just human nature.

Earlier this morning I was reading a piece by Mack Ade where he was talking about Bobby Parnell. Mack mentioned Parnell was one of the last guys still around from when he was in the clubhouse. And he concluded with this:

In addition, on a personal note, I really didn’t think he was much of a positive influence in the clubhouse. Sort of a snob really. Anyway, still the best to him.

Those of us without direct access can’t possibly know all there is to know about either the players or the manager. Plus, it wouldn’t surprise me a bit if there were a dozen or more people who would immediately jump up and vouch for Parnell’s character. You can’t please all of the people all of the time.

Just a reminder that in all things, there’s more to the picture than meets the eye.

10 comments on “Terry Collins: National lovefest or political kumbaya?

  • Chris F

    Lets face it, winning makes things all about fairy dust, unicorns, and pink+green clouds of marshmallow.

    A quick google search will turn up plenty of TC rants at the media about the team and the line of questioning he got…especially in the first couple years of his tenure. Win the division, win the pennant, and to the world series and “poof” SI wants you, MLB Network wants you, have a “baseball lifer” story and media eats it up.

    If the Mets are 8 below at the ASG and in 3rd place, the confetti will turn to barbs.

    I dont begrudge the accolades and pomp at this point. Its what fills the time in life without games. Once the games begin, the microscopes turn on, and results will determine how the media treats him.

    • Brian Joura

      Yes, I think all of what you said is true.

      The thing that always gets me is that there have been times when TC didn’t exactly act like a saint and it never, ever stuck to him. The one that sticks out in my mind is when he threw Valdespin under the bus. I mean, I get it that people generally didn’t like JV, so I guess that made it okay. But the teflon nature of it all has always shocked me a bit.

      • Chris F

        True, but that the needle is almost always leaning to “nice guy” makes the aberrations seem less consequential. I find that especially true after his exit from the Angels.

        As for Valdespin, I would have been held in much poorer light. I felt he needed to go out there and get his dose of medicine for being the dirt bag punk he was. I would have pushed him under the bus, taken off all the elbow pads, and the drove the bus into him. Im just sayin….theres room for latitude with “JV1” or is that JV0?

  • James Preller

    Well, I posted off-topic on this very thing in the AM today, under the Duda thread.

    It’s important for me to avoid listening to TC, because he’ll make me crazy. But now we’re seeing more microphones thrust before him than ever before, and he’s lapping it up, letting it all hang out. He’s like one of those geezers in a Speedo at the beach. Dude, no!

    The rant against advanced stats was about two shades too self-satisfied.

    • Brian Joura

      We all say and do stupid stuff and I’m glad no one’s following me around all day with a microphone and recording what I say.

      But handling the media is an important part of Collins’ job. He’s paid, in part, not to be the old guy in the Speedo around a microphone. It just makes me wonder what the life expectancy of teflon is anyway.

      • Chris F

        Bad news Brian.

        MotherJones Magazine, 2007:

        Teflon, it turns out, gets its nonstick properties from a toxic, nearly indestructible chemical called pfoa, or perfluorooctanoic acid….The nonprofit watchdog organization Environmental Working Group (ewg) calls pfoa and its close chemical relatives “the most persistent synthetic chemicals known to man.”

        • Brian Joura

          Ha!

          Well, if cooking pans are any indication, we can just rub with a metal utensil a few times and it comes right off.

    • Chris F

      Brian and James,

      Ive been stewing on the “lack of advanced metrics” comments that TC made and how it seems like such an odd couple connection with the FO way of doing business. Really, TCs comments floored me even if they were pure media consumption empty-calorie mumbo jumbo.

      That said, Collins has been ably assisted for some time by Bob Geren, a full fledged numbers guy crunching all the stats right on the top step. By all measures, Geren ran an awfully tight ship, feeding TC the digested data whether it be on the top step or in the clubhouse. So while Collins himself may not be writing Excel macros to chop down data, hes had it. We all need to be prepared that Geren’s departure could be more than a “so what” move.

      So, I was traveling for work when all that went down, and just today I got to thinking about this. So what do people know about Dick Scott, the Mets new Bench Coach? I did a little poking around and learned he was a career minor leaguer, seems to have earned his stripes coaching in the minors, has a long connection with Alderson, and has had a role in the Mets in player development most recently. Otherwise, I couldnt find any philosophical architecture to his leadership. Im guessing he will similarly be a numbers guy, perhaps I am hoping he will be a numbers guy.

      But hey, I did love TCs final comment: you know who has good !@#$ing numbers? Good players do. That made me laugh and its right as rain.

      • Brian Joura

        I guess I worry less about Collins having access to the numbers and more about an anti-knowledge bias in things that he does.

        Is Collins’ quote materially different from Omar saying, “Give me talent and I’ll give you OBP?”

  • Jim OMalley

    The Mets have done a great job since the trading deadline last year with just about everything except bringing up Backman. That would be the ideal counter move to Maddon.

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