And the Mets' GM is...Sandy Alderson!

Sandy Alderson

Jon Heyman of Sports Illustrated reported that the Mets have hired Sandy Alderson as their new GM. The Mets will probably make the official announcement on Friday (in between Games 2 and 3 of the World Series). At 62 years old, Alderson has put together quite a resume. He served as GM and later president of the Oakland A's from 1983 to 1997, winning four division titles, reaching three World Series, and winning the World Series in 1989. After his time with the A's, Alderson was MLB's Executive Vice President of Operations, and from 2005 to 2009 he was CEO of the San Diego Padres. The only caveat to Alderson is that he hasn't run a team's day-to-day baseball operations since 1997. Something tells me that with Alderson's skills, he'll be able to jump back into the GM position with no problems.

Wally Backman

The next step for Alderson and the Mets is to start looking for a manager. Since Manuel was fired, Mets fans have been pushing for Wally Backman as the team's new manager. Alderson, with his Ivy League education and Marine Corps background, doesn't seem like the type of guy who will give in to a popular idea simply because it's popular. Most sources close to Alderson and the Mets believe that Alderson is not considering Backman, and is instead looking for a candidate with major league managerial experience who is well-versed in dealing with the media (can you say Bobby Valentine?). Whomever the Mets pick, I feel more comfortable with Alderson at the helm.

 Mets fans will be anxious to see how Alderson handles his first major test. What will he do with Oliver Perez, Luis Castillo, Carlos Beltran, and K-Rod (almost $55 million dollars worth of problems right there)? Hopefully, under the new Alderson era the Mets can expect a sense of credibility and common sense that they haven't had in the last few years under Minaya.

NYaT competes in the 2010 KIC IT Triathlon

As much as we here at NYaT enjoy watching and writing about sports, we occasionally enjoy participating in them too!  As a matter of fact, one of our resident guest bloggers, Elissa Glucksman, competed in the 2010 KIC IT Triathlon today in Stamford, Conn.  This Olympic-length triathlon, as the name suggests, benefits Kids in Crisis, which is Connecticut’s only facility for children newborn to age 17.   KIC provides free temporary shelter, therapeutic counseling, comprehensive medical care and specialized educational support for children struggling with a wide range of issues including abuse, neglect, abandonment, family health issues and family conflict.

This was Elissa's fourth straight year competing with a relay team.  Her sister, Deena, breezed through the 10k (6.2 mile) run in just over an hour and Elissa swam the 1 mile in a personal-best 29 minutes.  But the surprise was their bike teammate, none other than former New York Mets manager Bobby Valentine!  Amidst widespread speculation that he's about to win the Florida Marlins' vacant manager position, Bobby V co-chaired the triathlon, hosted the post-race food party at his own restaurant (which is named Bobby V's, of course) and managed to post a 1:39 time in the 25-mile bike segment, besting the 1:43 yours truly clocked in 2008.

The best number of all, though, was the $225,000 that KIC raised today.  Congratulations to all who competed!  Before you go, be sure to check out Elissa and Bobby V in these news clips!

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Busted: The Steve Phillips Story

Sometimes we have guest posts. And sometimes we have awesome, laugh-out-loud funny guest posts. This is the latter. Bryan "The Dog" was with Jay and I on our sports talk radio show for WBRS, "Double Overtime". During my sophomore year, Bryan was the Freshman that did the overnight shift which followed Double OT. One day he showed up and was talking sports with us. The next year he became part of the sports department. He was the contrarian view. Bryan is a Red Sox/Mets fan (though not old enough to remember 1986, thankfully for his fragile mind). He's a Kings fan. He has a soul patch (or did...I haven't seen him in a while). He was easy to make fun of. And he laughed it off. It is that good sense of humor/knowledge of good insults that led him to give us this guest blog post/highly plausible conspiracy theory. Warning: while it may make you laugh, it does reference Steve Phillips' penis, John Kruk's testicle, and a fake mustache. One needs to be forewarned of such things. Without further ado, here's the guest post by Bryan "The Dog" (image courtesy of The Big Lead):

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A tale of seduction, deception, scandal, and “Really? Her?”

Well, at least we get some more insight into how the Mets traded away Jason Bay and acquired Mo Vaughn. Steve Phillips will never be remembered for his good judgment, and recent events don’t speak to the contrary. Phillips, ESPN Analyst and former New York Mets General Manager, was recently suspended by the network (even though he discovered David Wright) for the scandal associated with an extramarital affair with a twenty-two year old production assistant. However, there is more to this story than a mere quickie with an ESPN staffer. Now, perhaps Phillips merely wanted a woman whom he could pass off as his son if he got caught, or Bill Belichick and him have a bet going to see how can sleep with the most women working in the sports, assuming Phillips thought that if he traded quality, he could boost his quantity quickly. Harold Reynolds sure as hell isn’t hugging her.

Nonetheless, these are idle quips; I have no interest in angering this young lady if she may stumble upon this post (you won’t see me signing my full name to this post…). Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, and I believe that goes doubly so when the woman scorned is reportedly batshit crazy. Be it the Facebook friending of Phillips the younger to grill him for family information, or the car accident inducing letter drop off (she drove into a pole during her getaway), Steve Phillips has engulfed himself in a story for the ages, one that plays like a Hitchcock film. The woman, Brooke Hundley, in a letter dropped off for Phillips’s wife, displayed uncomfortable amount of detail regarding their children’s daily activities, told the Mrs. that the Catholic Church will understand if she gets a divorce so her and Steve can be together, and graphically described birthmarks on Phillips’s crotch (much to all of our chagrin) to prove her story. Additionally, Hundley called and left voicemails and sent texts to members of the family, finally prompting police involvement, Mrs. Phillips filing for divorce, and ESPN, ultra-sensitive to these issues, having no choice but to suspend Steve Phillips.

Yet in every great film noir, the love affair is only half of the story. The other part of the tale deals with the evil mustachioed man behind the scenes, pulling the strings in order to effectuate his wicked plan. Enter that mustachioed rogue (even if it was a fake mustache). In this story, our villainous scoundrel may be none other than the once-disguised Bobby Valentine, former New York Mets and Chiba Lotte Marines manager. Phillips and Valentine’s tenuous, if not volatile, relationship in the New York Mets organization ended unceremoniously after the 2002 season when Phillips fired Valentine after leading the team to a 75-86 5th place finish in the NL East. There was clearly no love lost between the two. Nonetheless, ESPN signed Valentine to do playoff baseball on Baseball Tonight when the Marines made it clear that they would not be bringing Valentine back for the 2010 season. Valentine, a former ESPN analyst, would be returning to the United States, and could work for ESPN before committing to managing a MLB team. And ESPN loves Bobby Valentine. However, this raised a certain dilemma for ESPN, who would have the two archrivals both signed on to work together on the same show, potentially cutting out the regulars of Peter Gammons, Tim Kurkjian, Buster Olney, Orestes Estrada, Eric Young, and Dave Winfield from the show even more often (sadly, John Kruk isn’t going anywhere), and making the room more awkward than when Kruk brings up his one testicle.

Enter ESPN’s escape clause. By using the affair as an excuse to suspend Phillips, for a situation where he is actually the victim, ESPN is able to slot Valentine in until the end of the playoffs, when he will undoubtedly be picked up by a major league team. At that point, they can reinstate Phillips, avoiding the mess they’ve gotten themselves into while not losing an analyst for good, as happened when they felt they needed to fire a skilled analyst in Harold Reynolds. The MLB network isn’t complaining. So like a true evil genius, Bobby Valentine has benefited from Phillips’s mistake, and in turn gotten his revenge on the man who fired him so many years ago. Not by some outright plan, but by subtly slotting himself into the job that Phillips loved oh-so-much and taking advantage of his enemy when he’s down. Beware the mustachioed gentleman.