Wally Backman: “I Resigned”

Wally Backman insists he broke up with the Mets, despite reports Sandy Alderson dumped him.

“I resigned,’’ he told the Daily News Monday night. “I was in Triple-A for five years here. It’s time for me to pursue other opportunities in baseball.’’

However, the New York Post reports Alderson fired Backman after the Triple-A manager disobeyed him. Among other things, Backman reportedly would not bat Brandon Nimmo leadoff and he would not bat Michael Conforto against lefties at all.

Backman denied this, saying, “Everything they asked me to do, I did.’’ For his part, Conforto denied it as well.

Whatever happened, the simple truth is Wally Backman was never Sandy Alderson’s type of guy. Terry Collins is his type of guy; when Alderson tells him where to put a batter in the lineup, Collins asks “how high” (at the risk of mixing a metaphor).

Alderson reportedly wanted to fire Backman on numerous occasions over the years, but the Wilpons would not allow it.

Today’s general managers want to be in  charge of everything, and that includes things like the day-to-day lineup. Backman would never have put up with such nonsense.

For Wally Backman to get a job, it would have to be with an old-school general manager who understands it is the manager who sets the lineup and is in charge of what goes transpires on the field. Sadly for Backman, there are fewer and fewer of those left in baseball today.