The Wally Backman Era Comes to An End
Aug 9th 2007eBaseball & Minor League Baseball
No matter how talented they are, some people just aren’t fit to be baseball managers. Wally Backman is probably one of those people.
In 2004 Backman was memorably fired by the Diamondbacks after just four days on the job when reports surfaced about his serious legal and financial problems. Backman bounced back this season with the South Georgia Peanuts of the South Coast League, leading them to the first half title. Still, the success wasn’t enough for Backman to keep his job.
Backman resigned Tuesday as manager of the South Georgia Peanuts after run-ins with umpires, a press box argument with another team’s radio announcer and a forfeited game when his team refused to return to the field after a brawl with rival Macon.
The final straw came on Monday when Backman protested the 10 game suspensions given to two of his players for having masking agents in their urine samples. Backman accused the league’s medical director of “not doing his job properly” and a league official responded saying they “have a manager who cannot control his players.” Backman and league officials had lunch on Tuesday and both decided it would be better if he resigned.
The really bad news for Backman is that he’s a lifelong baseball guy who has pretty much fallen of the last wrung of the baseball coaching ladder—there’s really not a lot of places you can go after proving to be unfit to manage in the independent leagues. Hopefully sometime in the near future a group of lucky high school kids will have the honor of calling Backman “coach.”
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