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The Day After Mets GM Minaya's Weird Press Conference
By
Jen Chung
Published Jul 28, 2009
Modified Jul 28, 2009
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By
Jen Chung
Published Jul 28, 2009
Modified Jul 28, 2009
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Well, it's pretty apparent that Mets general manager Omar Minaya's press conference to announce the firing of VP of player development Tony Bernazard did not go as planned. The NY Times wrote, "Three and a half months into a season marked by bile and buffoonery, the Mets added to the chaos Monday, when they turned a news conference announcing the dismissal of a high-ranking executive into an almost surreal confrontation with a reporter who regularly covers the team."
Minaya went out of his way to mention how Daily News Mets beat writer Adam Rubin kept covering Bernazard's questionable behavior (which was worth firing him over)—and then brought up how Rubin allegedly "lobbied" him for a job. Which turned Rubin into part of the story, prompting him to deny the accusation, wonder if he'd be able to even cover the Mets, and write an article today to set the record straight. Here's an excerpt:
As I told the reporters who descended upon me after Minaya left the press conference, I have never, ever, asked Omar Minaya for a job. Or even career advice. Frankly, I've never been very close to him.
What I have done, and what Mets COO Jeff Wilpon acknowledged later yesterday, is ask Wilpon for "career advice." My question: Is it even remotely feasible for a baseball writer to get into an administrative job with a team - any team - down the road and what would I need for that to be achieved?
Wilpon once invited me to his office at Citi Field for an advisory session. I never took him up on it.
I also appear on the Mets' television station, and I asked Jeff Wilpon whom I should talk to at the network if I wanted to explore television as a part of my career. He told me to talk to SNY exec Curt Gowdy Jr., who told me basically that I was a bit "too flat."
Wilpon made his remarks at a second press conference, where Minaya apologized for bringing up the Rubin-lobbied-him-for-a-job details during the earlier press conference, but not for his accusations, "I stand by the things that I said, but I regret saying it in that forum. That was not the proper forum to say it."
The News's Filip Bondy wrote that Minaya took a cheap shot, "The otherwise personable and respected Mets' GM suddenly became a clumsy, spiteful hit man. Don't just kill the messenger. Disgrace him, too." The Post's Jay Greenberg added, "Bad enough that Omar Minaya was, at best, indifferent, and, at worst, clueless to the prolonged bullying of his right-hand man. Yesterday, in shooting the messenger, the clumsy Mets GM turned the gun on himself... Whatever ulterior motives Minaya may have been wishing upon a writer who had asked members of several organizations about potential career entry into baseball, hadn't the GM admitted to already knowing Mets' HR department had been investigating Bernazard's behavior of the kinds described by Rubin?" And Newsday's Wallace Matthew offers, "Mets fans, your future is secure. Jeff Wilpon and Omar Minaya are a matched set, equals in ignorance, arrogance, incompetence and vindictiveness. And as long as they remain together - the idiot son of the rich owner and the clueless general manager content to serve as his dummy - the Mets will continue to stink out their shiny new ballpark."
Even the players were shocked. Carlos Delgado said, "I'm surprised, but anything can happen here. I wish I would've saw it. I don't want to say it's funny, because it's obviously not funny, it's a very sensitive situation, but maybe there was something out of line and needed to be addressed."
Tagged
Adam Rubin
baseball
mets
Omar Minaya
Tony Bernazard
weird
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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