FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Collins watches the Mets’ during their first full team spring training workout yesterday in Port St. Lucie. (ANTHONY J. CAUSI)
FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Manager Terry Collins watches the Mets’ during their first full team spring training workout yesterday in Port St. Lucie. (Anthony J. Causi)
PORT ST. LUCIE — Move over, Knute Rockne. Or at least, move over, Jerry Manuel.
In case there were doubts about Terry Collins’ ability to captivate a clubhouse, 12 years removed from his last major league command post, the new Mets manager erased them yesterday with a stirring, red-in-the face opening address that had his team ready to go out and win one for The Gipper.
Collins’ 15-minute speech, moments before the Mets’ first full spring workout, focused on believing in the team’s talent and dismissing the gloom and doom forecasts for 2011.
“It’s no slight to anyone else I’ve ever had, but the way [Collins] talks, you feel like he means it,” Jason Bay told The Post. “That’s not saying other managers didn’t mean it. It’s just that he gets things across a different way. You don’t find a lot of guys like him at this level. It’s kind of cool.”
The Mets have finished with losing records the last two seasons and seen their top players spend significant time on the disabled list. Collins’ task is to jump-start the Mets into a playoff contender, never mind the powerhouse Phillies in the NL East.
“Positive reinforcement goes a long way,” Bay said. “A lot of times, especially with the way things have gone in the past, a lot of talk has dwelled on the negative and it wears you down a little bit.”
Collins, returning to the reins of a major league team for the first time since 1999, when he resigned from the Angels, is already impressed with the upbeat attitude of his veterans. But the manager also isn’t going to sit back and let his players dictate the tempo.
“Will I get mad? Yeah, I’m going to get mad,” Collins said. “I give a [bleep] about how this team plays.”
If healthy, the Mets should have a lineup that compares with most in the National League. But there is the issue of a starting rotation that will be minus Johan Santana for the first half of the season as he attempts to recover from shoulder surgery. The Mets don’t want to hear about those setbacks.
Collins’ mission is to instill a Mets-against-the-world mentality in his troops.
“I’m sick of people saying a lot of bad stuff about us,” Francisco Rodriguez said. “It doesn’t mean we believe it.”
David Wright said Collins’ upbeat approach could be infectious in the clubhouse.
“He’s just that excited about baseball and that excited about this season,” Wright said. “He gets all fired up and it’s like a snowball. He starts up with a normal voice and it picks up a few decibels and then a few more and by the end of it he’s yelling and screaming and sweating and red in the face. It makes it fun, and those are the type of guys you want to run through a wall for.”
Collins said he was more Gen. George Patton than Abraham Lincoln when addressing the Mets.
“You always hope you make an impact, so there are some nerves involved,” Collins said. “It’s a baseball team. This is what I do. I’ve been around them a long time, and I thought the reception was good.”