Micky Callaway and the Miserable Mets

By Andrew Hreha

Photo creds to CBS Sports

Mets gonna Mets, And the New York Mets just Met-ed all over Major League Baseball this weekend. First, let me say that as a Pirates fan, I feel for Mets fans. This franchise is a wreck. It has an incredibly talented pitching staff, a bright young star in first baseman Pete Alonso and no clue how to put any of it together. Pittsburgh has a laundry list of issues with its baseball franchise, so it is easy to empathize with fan bases dealing with frustration. The New York Mets have a way of not just failing, but making a show of it. Maybe it’s only the city lights, but when the Mets fail, it usually is on a much larger stage than when the Pirates do. New York’s “other” team failed on a pretty big stage this weekend.
The Mets currently sit at 37-44, 11 games behind the NL East-leading Atlanta Braves. After Sunday’s 5-3 loss Cubs, many postgame questions aimed at manager Mickey Callaway involved his use of the bullpen. Callaway grew very defensive of his management plan as issues became more pointed. Finally, the skipper lost his cool. After Newsday beat writer Tim Healey said, “See you tomorrow, Mickey,” to Callaway as he was exiting, Callaway responded, “Don't be a smart (expletive) mother (expletive).” This by itself is, among other things, embarrassing. However, one explosion can be forgiven. People lose their cool all the time in sports, especially at the professional level. That intensity is only multiplied in New York City. Callaway is clearly high strung at the moment. Not only is his team not performing, but his mistakes are also starting to cost them games, and probably will cost him his job. So Mickey could have put the issue to bed, apologized and moved on. Mickey did not move on.
After leaving the press area, Callaway returned. Rather than calming down, Callaway doubled down. As he came back to the press room, he yelled, “Get the (expletive) out of here. We don’t need that (expletive).” This was only the beginning of the chaos. After exchanging looks with the same reporter, 36-year-old Jason Vargas, entered the picture. Vargas began charging the reporter from across the room and yelled, “I’ll knock you the (expletive) out, bro.” Other Mets would then get between Vargas and the reporter to defuse the situation. What is there to say? The year is 2019, and the Mets clubhouse has turned into Happy Gilmore attacking Bob Barker.

It’s not like this was the bat boy and the towel boy, or even two rookies. This was the manager and a 36-year-old pitcher. There are no words to describe the epic dumpster fire that is the Mets clubhouse right now.

First things first, Callaway needs to be fired. Yelling Healey is bad enough, and doubling down is fireable. But to then half-heartedly apologize and compare yourself to Billy Martin, as if to say, “at least I didn’t punch the guy,” is insanity. Callaway is begging to lose his job at this point. He is practically pulling a George Costanza from Seinfeld and actively trying to get the Mets to fire him. While Callaway has proven he can’t manage the Mets, maybe he can take another page out of Costanza’s playbook and try to be the head of scouting for the Yankees.