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Controversial Mets Valentine criticizes front office in college speech
Posted: Saturday April 15, 2000 01:48 AM
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- New York Mets general manager Steve Phillips said he was "surprised and curious" Friday that manager Bobby Valentine criticized the team's front office during a discussion with business school students. Phillips unexpectedly flew to Pittsburgh to discuss the remarks with Valentine, but said he wouldn't fire the manager. Valentine thought his comments with the University of Pennsylvania students on Wednesday in Philadelphia were off the record and mostly tongue-in-cheek. Valentine told the group that the Mets spent too much money to sign Todd Zeile, that he couldn't bench Derek Bell because of his salary and that the Mets shouldn't have gotten rid of Masato Yoshii. "I was kidding, saying this is the kind of stuff you'd hear on a talk radio show, and I was playing the caller most of the time," Valentine told The Record of Hackensack, N.J. "They threw it at me, I threw it back at them." But Phillips was mad enough to get on a plane and fly to Pittsburgh, where the Mets are playing a three-game series. "I slept on it, and I thought it made sense to come here. I would be conspicuous by my absence," he said. He and Valentine spoke briefly before Friday night's game and planned to talk again afterward. "I didn't come here with the intent to fire the manager," Phillips said. "It's something I want to talk to him about. He's not going to get fired over this, no." Phillips suggested he showed up to try to defuse the controversy and "because it seemed appropriate for me to be here. I had to be here to respond." Asked if it could be a distraction to a team already off to an erratic start, Phillips said, "It's a potential distraction. Whether it gets to the point where it a distraction, I don't know." Phillips wouldn't detail what he and Valentine discussed before the game, though Phillips said, "I need a clarification of what actually was said and what wasn't said. I'm not going to be accusatory." After an 8-5, 12-inning victory over Pittsburgh, Valentine was asked if he thought the controversy will deflate in a day or two. "Why would I? I think it should, though," he said. Several players attempted to downplay any effects of Valentine's remarks. "Not to be disrespectful, because the manager is your boss, but I've been in baseball 16 years ... and whatever people say or do doesn't affect me," pitcher Al Leiter said. "Whatever's going on, you still have to take care of your business." Mike Piazza, 5-for-6 with two homers, said, "You just have to realize people say things or do things they wish they could take back. Nobody's perfect. It happens. You just have to be prepared to do your job." Still, Valentine's relationship with Phillips has been strained for some time and Valentine has been warned by co-owner Fred Wilpon not to speak out. Wilpon also was angry about the remarks, and Phillips planned to fill him in on his talk with Valentine. The manager said the students had promised they would not repeat anything he said. However, the comments showed up on a bulletin board on the Mets' Web site. Phillips saw the comments Thursday. "It would be too bad if a bunch of kids had a good time in a classroom and somebody made it into something more than it was," Valentine said. The company that hosts the Web site later took down the remarks. Among the comments attributed to Valentine were that the money the team spent on Zeile -- $18 million over three years -- might have been spent better on new relief pitchers. He thought Jorge Toca and Matt Franco would have been just fine at first base. He couldn't understand trading Yoshii to the Colorado Rockies and said the team never had a real backup plan to replace him in the rotation. He wanted the team to sign Japanese closer Kazuhiro Sasaki, who ended up signing with the Seattle Mariners.
He said the front office won't let him sit Bell, who is making $5 million this season, and that he "ignores" Rickey Henderson and won't try to change the outfielder's personality.
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