Tag: Omar Minaya
Mets Wilpon Apologizes For Minaya’s Outburst
Mets COO Jeff Wilpon met with the media before last night’s game against the Rockies to express the organization’s dissatisfaction with Omar Minaya’s meltdown during Monday’s press conference. Mets fans are well aware by now that Minaya implied that Daily News reporter Adam Rubin wrote damaging reports about Tony Bernazard because Rubin wanted a position in player development with the Mets.
Wilpon said that Minaya apologized to Mets ownership for making a “very, very large mistake”. He went on to say that Minaya is well aware that he put the team in a bad spot with his comments about Rubin.
Rubin has received a voice mail from Wilpon apologizing on behalf of the Mets team and he hopes that Rubin will accept a call from Minaya to apologize.
Clearly, the simple firing of Bernazard has turned into a complete disaster for this PR-challenged team. I always thought of Minaya as fairly media savvy despite his lack of command of the English language. But this episode has exposed Minaya as easily shaken and a poor communicator.
All of this has left the Mets, and us fans, as the laughing stock of the league. Definitely take a look at Ray Ratto’s column for CBS Sports. He describes the Mets dysfunction in the front office and goes on the say that fans of the Royals, Nationals, and Pirates are thinking that it could be worse. They could be Mets fans.
Listen to Jeff Wilpon’s meeting with the media here:
Video: Mets Minaya Fires Bernazard, Criticizes Reporter
Omar Minaya Apologizes For Trashing Adam Rubin
After Mets GM Omar Minaya attempted to discredit NY Daily News reporter Adam Rubin at a press conference today, he thought better of it and issued an apology. Interestingly, COO Jeff Wilpon was by his side looking like an adult forcing a child to apologize for bad behavior.
You can see the original press conference here. Oh, by the way, the press conference was to announce that the Mets fired VP Player Development Tony Bernazard.
Rubin quickly became the focus of the press conference to everyone’s surprise. This just goes to show that the Mets can make a bad situation even worse. You can see Rubin’s response to Minaya’s accusations here.
It’s been a bizzare day, even by Mets standards. This kind of bad PR just can’t be doing Minaya any good right now. Unbelievable… Does the embarrassment ever end?
Mets Fire Bernazard; Rubin’s Motives Questioned
The Mets finally fired VP of Player Development Tony Bernazard after several stories of misdeeds came out like this. It’s not a big surprise considering the transgressions that we’ve heard of. Minaya said that Mets human resources was looking into complaints about Bernazard prior to the NY Daily News publishing damning stories about him. Minaya said that inter-personal communication problems by Bernazard were the reason for the firing.
The bombshell came when Omar Minaya implied that the journalist that broke the stories about Bernazard, Adam Rubin, had an ulterior motive for writing his stories. Minaya said that Rubin has spoken to him and other people in the Mets organization about getting a job with them in player development.
Minaya said that he “scuffled” (whatever that means) when he read that Rubin was the person writing the stories. SNY showed Rubin on camera during the press conference, who appeared to be shocked by this public revelation.If this is true, it seems to be very unprofessional of Rubin. I can’t wait to read what Rubin has to say about this.
Instead of Bernazard, Rubin became the focus of this press conference. Amazing! It was another great moment in this season’s Mets soap opera.
Nationals 3 – Mets 1 July 22, 2009
The Mets look horrible right now. The game was preceded by Omar Minaya saying that the Mets are investigating bad behavior and poor judgment by Tony Bernazard. Then the Mets go on to lose the game and the series to the lowly Nationals.
Mike Pelfrey recovered from his disasterous start in Atlanta to pitch a good game. He went 7 innings giving up only 3 runs.
Luis Castillo was ejected from the game for arguing a call at second base in the second inning. He bobbled the ball on a force out throw from David Wright. The ejection was very quick, so he must have said the magic word to the umpire.
As usual, the Mets had no offense. They only managed 4 hits in the game. The lineup they’re putting out there everyday now is so weak that they may end up falling below the Nationals in the standings before this season is over.
Mets VP Bernazard Challenges Prospects To Fight
Mets VP of Player Development Tony Bernazard has long been rumored to be the guy that went behind Willie Randolph’s back last season when he was fired. But now Adam Rubin of the Daily News reports that Bernazard screamed at the Double-A Binghamton team, then ripped his shirt off and challenged them to fight. You read that right… To a fight!
Bernazard is a 52 year-old man challenging a team mostly made up of kids in their late teens and early 20’s to fight. Sure, the B-Mets are a terrible team with a 37-58 record in last place in the Eastern League. The incident is said to have occurred just before the All-Star break.
When Mets GM Omar Minaya was asked about it, he said that Bernazard spoke to the team in a stern voice and that he was upset about underage drinking on the team among other issues.
Rubin goes on to recount a story that Bernazard blasted the Mets manager of baseball operations at Citi Field recently. Apparently, he wanted a seat that was occupied by a D-Backs scout. The employee told him to wait until the half-inning to make the seat change and that set Bernazard off.
We never hear much from Bernazard himself. Although he did interview, unsuccessfully, for the Seattle Mariners GM job during the off-season. But the more we hear about him, the more there is not to like.
The Mets Report 