And can someone purchase him a multi-stop Amtrak ticket? Though I’ve long been a big fan of Steve Keane’s Kranepool Society blog, I must confess I’ve yet to check out his “Call To The Bullpen” internet radio show, and had I done so yesterday, I might’ve caught Omar Minaya’s old pal Adam Rubin of ESPN.com burying Wally Backman.  For the second time in 24 hours! In the view of Gotham Nation’s Mark Healy, “with an ESPN reporter citing whispers and innuendo about what Wally Backman may or may not have done in Brooklyn this past year, do you think any organization is going to give him the benefit of the doubt?” Well, yeah, isn’t that what the Newark Bears are all about?

On Keane™s show, he sort of repeated his original statements, with the caveat that something or somethings happened in Brooklyn this past season and that he would be œshocked of Backman was hired. œJust because things aren™t seminated to the public doesn™t mean everything is perfect. Rubin stated on the show.

œThere™s no sense in trying to disparage anybody, it™s not a match¦

By hinting at œproblems in Brooklyn and not making clear that Backman™s alleged transgressions in Brooklyn were on-the-field procedural issues, internal policy disagreements, or off-the-field problems, Rubin has opened speculation on all fronts. Whether he wants to agree with that sentiment or not, I really don™t care. What he did was completely out of line.

You don™t want to œdisparage anyone, but you throw out these comments a day or two right before Backman™s interview this week?

Though Adam Rubin is hardly the first or even the most serial abuser of Backman (I’m waving my arms over here as frantically as possible), I don’t think Healy is totally out to lunch.  If ever a manager in the NY-Penn League could be said to be working under a microscope, such a description would’ve applied to Backman this past season on Coney Island.  What other skipper in all of the game had to return to affiliated ball immediately after becoming an internet sensation — not for his strategic prowess, mind you, but the sort of  trigger-temper that instantly recalled earlier charges against the former Mets 2B. If anything seriously fucked up happened on Backman’s watch last season, it seems a minor miracle we’ve not learned about it.  Since when have the Mets demonstrated any ability to keep a secret?