The Futility Infielder

You know it's bad when they start devoting Top Ten lists to your exploits. Take this ESPN list of Armando Benitez's worst meltdowns (four of them against the Yanks, including #1). Or this David Letterman rendering of Randall Simon's potential excuses.

Back to Benitez for a moment. Lawrence Rocca of the Newark Star-Ledger has a piece reporting a conversation between former Mets manager Bobby Valentine and current Yankee GM Brian Cashman. Valentine, according to Rocca, lays most of the blame for Benitez's lack of acceptance in the Met clubhouse on the man he displaced as closer, reliever John Franco. Apparently the tough-talking son of a Brooklyn garbageman dished out more than his share of trash regarding his teammate:

According to people familiar with the conversation, Valentine told Cashman that Benitez's biggest problem with the Mets could be summed up in two words: John Franco.

It was Franco, bitter over being replaced as closer by Benitez, who led the back-stabbing of the sensitive pitcher in the Mets' fractured clubhouse, Valentine told Cashman.

It was Franco, the team captain, who leaked the embarrassing anecdotes about Benitez to the press that fueled the scornful fans.

It was Franco, Valentine told Cashman, who made Benitez the miserable and lonely figure he would become by the end of his tenure with the team.

Not that Valentine's mouth has ever made him an upstanding model when it comes to press relations, but there's plenty here that rings true. Having recently read Bob Klapisch and John Harper's account of the dismal 1992 Mets, The Worst Team Money Could Buy, it comes as no great surprise to hear about Franco's sabotage. Indeed, that entire book is a lesson in the ways "off the record" conversations with beat reporters fan the flames of discontent in a clubhouse. Franco was certainly a part of the action there, and his opinions carried a lot of clout -- he's the one who called for the press boycott in the spring of '92 over the reporting of various Mets' sexual escapades. Considering he was team captain and the man most affected by Benitez's arrival, it's apparent that he had an axe to grind in the situation, and the forum to do so.

This doesn't diminish Benitez's failures, but it certainly sheds some light on the ones which came with the Mets. Suddenly, those recent "anonymous" quotes regarding the need for Benitez to leave make much more sense. Who wouldn't be distracted by back-stabbing teammates?

Not that those left behind can do any better; a headline from today's New York Times: "Franco Picks Up Right Where Benitez Left Off." Touché, trashman.

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For whatever it's worth, both Benitez and Franco have refuted Rocca's article, with the New York Daily News reporting the following:

"He did great," added Franco, Benitez's predecessor and potential successor as Mets closer. "He's a human being. He may have blown some games for us - the World Series and playoffs and big games - but everyone has done it. It's just that he's under the spotlight."

With friends like that, who needs enemies? Benitez still throws smoke, but at this stage of his career, all Franco does is blow smoke.