When his first season as New York Mets manager is complete and Mickey Callaway has time to reflect, he might look back on the second week in May as a painful-yet-necessary formative experience.
After the Mets went 0-6 on a homestand with Atlanta and Colorado, placed Todd Frazier and Jacob deGrom on the disabled list and made the difficult decision to designate Matt Harvey for assignment and trade him to Cincinnati, authentic nfl jerseys cheap Callaway might have thought his team was due for a reprieve. Then, the self-inflicted portion of the program got underway: The Mets suffered a 2-1 loss to the Reds after blowing an opportunity to take an early lead because they batted out of order in the first inning.
No one knows exactly how the gaffe transpired or precisely what procedural changes the Mets have put in place to make sure it never happens again. But Callaway made sure of one thing — the players knew he was both responsible and accountable. They knew because he gathered them in the clubhouse shortly after the final out and told them so.
“I called them in after the game and told them I messed up big time and we need to do a better job moving forward,” Callaway said. “I took ownership of what happened, and I wanted them to hear that from me, not through the media.
“When you go through something like that, it’s tough. It’s probably something I’ll never, ever forget about. Hopefully, I’ll be doing this job for a long time and I’ll be going through this process of checking lineup cards for a long time.
“Look, we’re all human beings. We all make mistakes. I try not to worry about the things you can’t control. But this is something you can control, and that’s why it hurts so bad. If you’re prepared and you do the things the right way and you fail, you can live with that. Obviously, nfl jerseys for cheap we didn’t do it the right way in this instance.”
With the possible exception of Gabe Kapler, who was booed before the Phillies’ home opener, none of baseball’s five first-year managers has experienced a wider range of emotions than Callaway in the first six weeks of the season. After breaking out to a franchise-best 11-1 start, the Mets have gone 8-17 and given fans reason to wonder if they’ll be looking up at everyone except the Miami Marlins in the National League East by September.