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Bud Harrelson Revisited

AG/DC Jan 16 2008 08:24 AM

I want to consider whether his managerial tenure gets an unfair rap. At the time, the impression he left was that he was out of his depth. But he sure did a better job slowing the decline than them that followed --- arresting it briefly in his first season. I think the read people got was due in part to him simply not being Johnson. You look back at that era now and it seems pretty clear that whatever problems the Mets had were systemic --- or, at least, broad --- and couldn't be pinned on one figure.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Jan 16 2008 08:32 AM

I don't think it was the results that speak poorly of Harrelson's tenure; it was more a failure of being managerial. He was uncomfortable when his tactics were questioned, bailed on his radio show, and the players didn't much respect him because he wasn't a good communicator.

Frayed Knot Jan 16 2008 08:42 AM

Publicly admitting that he sent his pitching coach to make a mid-inning pitching change because he didn't want to hear himself booed, for instance, didn't to much to dispel the image that he wasn't cut out for the scrutiny that goes with the job.

Benjamin Grimm Jan 16 2008 08:53 AM

His briefly arresting the decline is, I think, mostly due to the fact that the 1990 Mets weren't as bad as the teams that followed. The only way he looks better in retrospect is that Jeff Torborg was equally inept, in many of the same ways that Harrelson was. I really thought Dallas Green would solve all that. He seemed to be the kind of guy who was needed to turn it around. He wasn't. There was a long, awful, stretch of managers between Johnson and Valentine.

Edgy DC Jan 16 2008 08:55 AM

Tell me you didn't just disrespect Mike Cubbage.

Benjamin Grimm Jan 16 2008 09:03 AM

I did! And I knew I was doing it, too!

Edgy DC Jan 16 2008 09:16 AM

Benjamin Grimm wrote: His briefly arresting the decline is, I think, mostly due to the fact that the 1990 Mets weren't as bad as the teams that followed. Maybe, but Davey got them out of the gate at 20-22 before getting canned. Harrelson took them home at 71-49 (a .592 clip!). Looking at the 1991 decline in retroshepct, I've got to wonder what manager is going to do better there after his GM replaiced Darryl Strawberry with Vince Coleman and Hubie Brooks? I guess the most incriminating thing about him --- aside from the negative media impresson he left --- was the delay of Jefferies maturation and, more broadly, the failure of the Magadan-Miller-Elster-Jefferies generation to develop into foundation they needed. Perhaps he could have taken a more mentoring role with Jefferies, like Randolph has tried to with Reyes. I always wonder what effect the surfeit of former slap-hitting infielders in the managerial ranks has on young potential proteges. Are they all tought hit-and-run techniques day and night, and it takes surly individualists like Jeff Kent to say, "Fuck you, I'm going to pull the ball like I've been doing since I was two."