NO RELIEF: Terry Collins lifts David Aardsma after he walked in a run in the 13th, becoming the first of three Mets relievers to give up a run in three consecutive innings. (
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He has been the right man for the Mets at the wrong time, the steward of a baseball Titanic. Terry Collins doesn’t deserve a shot to manage the Mets beyond this season only because he has unflinchingly navigated the stormy Madoff Ocean and done the job here as caretaker. He deserves his chance because he is the right man to bring the ship to port, when and if it is no longer the Titanic.
In no way is Collins lobbying for his job, simply answering: “I want the opportunity and I’d love the opportunity because I think we’ve got some people in place here that it’s going to come, and it’s going to come fast.”
Collins is 186-220 after David Aardsma and Brandon Lyon and Scott Rice offered no relief in sight at the end of Thursday’s 5-4, 15-inning loss to the Diamondbacks. If nothing else, Anthony Recker’s two-out homer in the 13th off Heath Bell and Kirk Nieuwenhuis’ one-out homer in the 14th off Chaz Roe can serve as reminders that sometimes it takes 45 outs to beat his Marathon Mets.
“I’ve been doing this longer than most of you are alive,” Collins said, “and I’ve never been through two weeks of more grueling baseball than they’ve just been through. How some of those guys are still standing, I have no idea. … They’re playing ‘til the game’s over.”
Let’s see if he can be the baseball Tom Coughlin with Matt Harvey and Zack Wheeler together, after Sandy Alderson finally gets to spend on help for David Wright, who will stand up for Collins, 64 going on 54, if and when Alderson asks his opinion.
“I feel like he’s always had my back, he’s always been great to me, so no doubt I’ll return that favor,” Wright told The Post . “But I’ve never been a guy that goes and knocks on Sandy’s door and says, ‘Here’s what I think you should do, or here’s my opinion.’ If they come and ask, I’d be more than happy to, but I feel like there’s got to be that separation of powers where I can’t play third base and start popping off to the GM. “
Collins is a lame duck. You’d never know it watching him manage, or his team fight.
“He’s in the same situation that probably, I’d say 90 percent of the guys in here are,” Wright said. “I’ve never heard him complain about it. I think that he hasn’t done anything that I’ve scratched my head at … ’cause he could very well go out there and just like players could be, and go out there and be selfish about certain things, and he hasn’t done that. Probably not the ideal situation, not just here, anywhere, having a manager in is last year, but it’s up to us — and him — to go out there and finish strong, play good baseball, and those things kind of take care of themselves.”
Collins won’t be knocking on Alderson’s door for clarification.
“I don’t worry about me,” Collins said. “This game is about the players — it’ll ***always*** be about the players.”
He mentions Walter Alston managed the Dodgers through 23 one-year-contracts.
“I don’t worry about what’s going to happen down the road,” Collins said. “I talked to Dusty [Baker] last summer, and he said, ‘You can’t be afraid of the unexpected.’ So I’m not. I come here every day and I enjoy being around my players, and you know what? If the opportunity’s there, I’m going to grab it and run with it and do the best I can.”
New York never scared him.
“You can’t come to the ballpark and feel down,” Collins said. “You better get yourself ready, because these are very, very knowledgeable fans, they have great expectations, and I think that’s wonderful. I don’t think you should ever come to the ballpark and say, ‘Well we’re not supposed to win, let’s just go through the motions and try to get better.’ That’s not what I’m about.”
He nurtured many of these players as a minor league field coordinator. He has his finger on the pulse. Same guy every day.
“I kind of like that fire and intensity,” Wright said. “I feel comfortable going and kind of speaking my mind to him, whether it’s something that he wants to hear or not.”
They trust him in the dugout.
“There’s obviously been moves that backfire, that happens to every manager,” Wright said, “but he puts us in pretty good positions to succeed and to win.”
Tomorrow, maybe.
“I see light at the end of the tunnel,” Collins said. “All I can worry about is today. … You always want to say, ‘Geez I’d like to be here when all those young players are better.’ Who knows? I don’t have a crystal ball. All I can do is tell you when I come to the ballpark each and every day, it’s fun, and I get excited to compete.”
Right man, in case there is a right time one day.