Popular Manager Leaves Connecticut For Long Island

NEW BRITAIN, CT — Wally Backman, one of the scrappiest and most popular players in New York Mets history, is leaving his job as manager of the Atlantic League's New Britain Bees to take the helm of the Long Island Ducks.

Backman, 59, was hired by the Bees in Nov. 2017 and guided the club to a second-place finish, two games behind Somerset, in the first half of the 2018 season. New Britain struggled in the second half, however, finishing seven games under .500, 11 games behind Long Island. Overall, the Bees wound up with a 61-65 record for a winning percentage of .484, third-lowest in the eight-team loop.

Long Island was league runner-up, falling to the Sugar Land Skeeters in five games in the Atlantic League Championship Series.

Backman replaces Kevin Baez, manager of the Ducks since 2011, who stepped down Tuesday in order to accept the manager's job with the Rockland Boulders of the Can-Am League.

"We would like to thank Wally Backman for his contributions to our team in 2018, and wish him the best with his new opportunity," Bees general manager Brad Smith said. "We will have an announcement soon in regard to the Bees new manager, and are excited to start a new chapter in the Hardware City."

Backman has spent 20 years as a field manager in the professional ranks, most notably with the Chicago White Sox, Arizona Diamondbacks and New York Mets organizations. He has led three different teams to league championships, the first coming in 1999 with the Tri-City Posse of the Independent Western Baseball League. His second managerial championship came with the Birmingham Barons (AA, White Sox) of the Southern League in 2002, and his third was earned in 2007 with the South Georgia Peanuts of the Independent South Coast League. He also managed the 2010 Brooklyn Cyclones (A, Mets) and the 2014 Las Vegas 51's (AAA, Mets) to regular season first place finishes. Backman owns 1,127 career victories as a professional manager.

Prior to his coaching career, Backman played 17 seasons of professional baseball, including 14 in the major leagues. He was a first round (16th overall) pick in the 1977 amateur draft by the New York Mets, making his big league debut in 1980. He spent nine seasons with the Mets, most notably as the starting second baseman for the 1986 World Series championship club. He batted .333 in the Mets' World Series victory over the Boston Red Sox, in one of the most memorable series of all time.

He joined the Minnesota Twins in 1989, and also spent time with the Pittsburgh Pirates (1990), Philadelphia Phillies (1991-92), and Seattle Mariners (1993). Over the course of 1,102 major league games played, Backman compiled a .275 batting average with 893 hits, 482 runs scored, 240 RBI, 117 stolen bases and a .349 on-base percentage.

File photo credit: Tim Jensen

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