COMMENTARY
Bernazard is dragging down Mets
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I’ve had a good laugh the last couple of days as the bizarre story of Mets Vice President Tony Bernazard has become mainstream fodder and the butt of jokes around the blogosphere. I’m allowed to laugh. It’s not my organization. But if I’m the Wilpon family and I own the Mets, this guy has to go. Now.
It’s bad enough Bernazard can’t put together a farm system. Blame him for the disaster that’s your 2009 Buffalo Bisons. Bad enough he meddles into the affairs of the big-league club (it’s widely known he torpedoed manager Willie Randolph last year), but now this loose cannon is feeling he’s an untouchable running the dysfunctional show for the Folks in Flushing.
Earlier this month, Bernazard allegedly berated the Double-A Binghamton Mets during a clubhouse meeting. According to the New York Daily News, Bernazard took off his shirt and challenged anyone who wanted a piece of him. He had particular venom for young shortstop Jose Coronado, who was a key member of the Mendoza Line club with the Bisons in April.
None of the players took up Bernazard on his offer. Maybe that speaks to the lack of inner-belly fire of the BMets, who are just as pathetic as the Bisons. Or maybe they’re smarter than their bosses. If you’re in Double-A and you go off on a VP of the parent club— even if he asked for it—your career is toast.
It’s pretty widely known around Coca- Cola Field that Bernazard also unleashed on the Bisons in the clubhouse during the last week of their horrific April. Not altogether undeserved the way they were playing. I’m told, however, he did keep his shirt on.
These kind of outbursts have apparently become commonplace. The Daily News also reported he recently became irate at an Arizona scout for taking his seat in a section behind home plate in Citi Field, and then berated a Mets official for trying to intervene.
The New York Post then popped out a tale that Bernazard got into quite the verbal joust with Francisco Rodriguez on the team bus last week in Atlanta. K-Rod confirmed but offered no details.
General Manager Omar Minaya, so clueless that he needs Bernazard by his side, said meekly Wednesday the Mets are “investigating” Bernazard. Said the word 13 times in a seven-minute news conference.
Hey, Omar: no investigation needed. It’s one thing to f-bomb a bunch of kids in Binghamton. It’s another thing entirely to try to go mano-a-mano with K-Rod, one of the parent club’s big-ticket items.
And if you’re going to be the No. 1 in-your- face guy on the totem pole, shouldn’t the minor-league teams—the ones you’re charged with putting together— show some shred of success? Binghamton and Buffalo ended Thursday with a combined 73 wins. That’s by far the lowest total of any organization’s Double-A and Triple-A teams. Keep in mind Bernazard was the bright light who put overmatched hitting coach Luis Natera in Buffalo, his first Triple-A job in 17 years in the Mets’ chain.
Many players on the big-league club despise Bernazard. Minor leaguers alternately loathe him or are nervous about him when he’s around. Nice way to attract minor-league free agents.
Farm director Adam Wogan can’t speak to the media, like folks in his job do with any other team. Bernazard has to do all the talking. So I guess the Mets’ farm director is just a pencil pusher who makes no decisions.
Bernazard, meanwhile, is somehow a favorite of COO Jeff Wilpon. The woes of their shirt-popping VP don’t appear high on the family priority list after the Wilpons got rolled to the tune of $700 million in the Madoff scandal.
Bad finances. Bad management. Meet the Mets. Greet the Mets. Some parent.
mharrington@buffnews.com
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