MLB

Collins’ shouts won’t change Mets fans’ pouts

My first beat of any type was covering the 1989 Yankees for this newspaper. I probably shouldn’t have been doing such a big job. I lacked experience in both covering a major team and also in life in general.

That leaves you susceptible to nonsense.

I remember a game in early June of that year in which the Yankees committed six errors and were crushed 16-3 by the Orioles to fall to 25-30. Afterward, standing outside the clubhouse in the old Yankee Stadium, then manager Dallas Green’s booming anger could not be contained even by the concrete walls separating team from the media.

The Yankees won two straight games afterward and an inexperienced beat reporter could believe there was correlation between manager’s rant and team’s victories. Of course, there wasn’t.

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Two weeks later, the Yankees would trade their dynamic, oft-injured, in-his-walk-year leadoff man, Rickey Henderson, to the A’s, whose general manager was a fellow named Sandy Alderson. Green would be fired in August. The Yankees, a fifth-place team on June 5, 1989, finished fifth at 74-87.

And by now you could see where we are going. I don’t believe in the tooth fairy anymore or that the tirades of managers are inspirational. The 1989 Yankees lost because their ace was Andy Hawkins, their shortstop was Alvaro Espinoza and no amount of Green screaming — and believe me he tried to set records — was going to make bad players into good.

So the idea Terry Collins’ Wednesday night outburst had anything to do with the Mets recovering from a 7-0 deficit to beat the Pirates on Thursday is silly. If you think that victory was about Collins’ invective then what was it, a one-day elixir? For a day after late-inning magic, three of the 2011 Mets’ few dependable players — Jose Reyes, Jason Isringhausen and Francisco Rodriguez — conspired in the late innings to waste Jonathon Niese’s strong work in a 6-3 Braves triumph.

Like those 1989 Yankees, these Mets were 25-30 when their manager unloaded. They also have a dynamic, oft-injured, in-his-walk-year leadoff man in Jose Reyes, who was mentored in spring 2006 by Henderson and might be traded in the coming weeks.

And, just like the 1989 Yankees, the fate of the 2011 Mets has nothing to do with a fiery manager. It is about having Mike Pelfrey as an ace and the shadow of Jason Bay and an all-too-familiar spate of injuries. The Mets either are going to have good enough players to surprise in the NL East or not.

“I am truly aware that my impact on the team is limited,” Collins said. “I have to keep the clubhouse upbeat and have their backs. But it is about them and I know that.”

I get the frustration. You want to do something to jolt ordinary or worse to a better level. But just as often, a manager turns off a team by bellowing too much. The 1989 Yankees, almost to a man, disliked Green. The 1995-96 Mets felt rather similarly when Green managed them. Isringhausen, a rookie for the 1995 Mets, remembers having “the [bleep] scared out of me” when Green would explode in the dugout.

There is an image of troops being inspired by Lou Piniella throwing a base or Billy Martin kicking dirt. But, in general, they won when they had good teams and all the diatribes, for example, didn’t make better pitchers out of the mundane arms both managed for the Yankees in the 1980s. And Collins himself burned out with his players in two previous stops.

Collins has done fine with the Mets, staying communicative and supportive. Isringhausen called Collins “a great manager for this team. He is a baseball man with a lot of passion.”

But Isringhausen said of any manager, “You can only do so much with what you got.”

Indeed, all managers are at the mercy of their talent. They can impact at the margins and maybe a good scream does work as a defibrillator to a moribund squad on occasion. But ultimately the quality of the roster is what matters. The screaming provides theatrics that serve highlight shows and sports talk better than a team.

“At the end, I know it is about the good teams that stay healthy,” Collins said. “But I am 5-7, 150 pounds and so I am used to fighting to get something. So all I want my message to be is, ‘Let’s fight.’ ”