Woe is Wally

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.

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.