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Woe is Wally

Nice heartwarming piece (/sarcasm) on Wally Backman, and how the D'Backs treated him sooooooo unfairly:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=pearlman/071022&sportCat=mlb&lpos=spotlight& amp;lid=tab2pos1

Jeff Pearlman must have lost some serious $$$$ on the 2001 World Series, because he sure doesn't like us very much! I don't know enough about the whole situation to pass judgment on whether management acted too quickly in getting rid of Wally, but I do know that he definitely has some anger management issues to take care of if he wants to find a job in MLB!

0 recs  |  Comment 4 comments

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Pearlman misspelled 'altars'.
Maybe that's why he's a former SI senior writer.

I'd also note that I enjoyed reading the comments on the story as much as the story itself. Here's the first on the list:

NBAhistorian (15 hours ago)
After reading this article, I am actually going to root for the Diamondbacks for doing the right thing. Wally Backman sounds like a jerk and on top of that, blames other people for his mistakes. I hate those kind of people.

Come on, Sandy Baby, loosen up. You're too tight.

by DbacksSkins on Oct 23, 2007 12:15 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Wally. Wally wally wally wally wally.
sorry its just a funny name.
2007 NLCS: the little scratch on the roof of your mouth that would heal if only you could stop tonguing it... but you cant.

by Adam1 on Oct 23, 2007 8:03 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Think it's short for Waldo?
Not that that's really any less funny.
Come on, Sandy Baby, loosen up. You're too tight.

by DbacksSkins on Oct 23, 2007 8:17 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Establishing that Wally is a jerk
...and rationalizes his mistakes is quite apart from the question of whether the Dbacks treated him unfairly.

When Wally was hired and paraded in front of the TV cameras, the Dbacks either A) were genuinely unaware of his baggage, or B) knew of his problems (more or less) but privately felt they didnt rise to the level of job disqualification.

If "A", they blatantly failed to do their due diligence. If "B", they lied about their visibility to his problems to save face following public outcry stemming from the TNYT disclosures.

The Dbacks werent vetting a third shift fry cook here. They were looking to fill the most visible, high profile position in their entire organization (ie most interaction with the press,etc). At the time, many casual fans suspected the candidate was a half-crazed, confrontational Type-A time bomb, who also happened to be a terrific manager. How could a professional ballclub, Backman's longstanding employer, be oblivious to his risk profile? How could they innocently hire such a volatile candidate for the high profile position, absent any kind of background check?

Although the people who hired Wally may not have known about every legal proceeding, I suspect they were quite familiar with Wally's "dark side", but like Backman, they self-interestedly chose to downplay that because he was such a fine manager. After the Times article hit the fan, Kendrick was in too deep and feigned ignorance of the matter, publicly tossing Backman to the curb, rather than defending the hire.

I dont care much for Wally either, but if the Diamondbacks did their due diligence, his personal problems most likely wouldnt have been splattered across the papers, and if they didnt do their due diligence, then IMO, they did Backman a life altering disservice - not just setting in motion the publication of his problems but subsequently choosing to abandon their employee, morally and financially.

by Diamondhacks on Oct 24, 2007 6:23 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

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