Mets: Mickey Callaway won’t get a chance to become worst manager in team history
Mickey Callaway will never have the chance to become the worst manager in New York Mets history. He’ll lose his job first.
In the moment, sports fans often like to believe in extremes. For instance, some of those fans angry with New York Mets manager Mickey Callaway are ready to declare him the worst in franchise history.
Those fanatics are jumping to some quick conclusions. Callaway has no chance of becoming the worst manager in team history. The Wilpons won’t let him.
We can debate who the worst manager in franchise history is. Based strictly on numbers, the honor goes to the legendary Casey Stengel.
The Mets have an interesting history. As an expansion team in the modern era, they had the unfortunate lean years early on. The Tampa Bay Rays suffered through this in the late early 1990s and early 2000s. We saw others put together horrible starts to the franchise history. Nobody was as bad as the Metropolitans in the early years. Literally.
The 1962 team remains the worst in MLB history. Nobody has performed more poorly than their 40-120 inaugural season.
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Even with Stengel at the helm, the team couldn’t put together a winning year until 1969. By that point, Stengel was gone and Gil Hodges was calling the shots.
Stengel’s reign of terror from 1962-1965 resulted in a 175-404 record. The .302 winning percentage is a scar on the Hall of Fame manager’s career.
Modern-day managers don’t get the same luxury that Stengel did in the early 1960s. Three 100+ loss seasons in a row and a fourth season headed in that direction marked his time with the Mets. I can’t imagine too many managers getting even two 100+ loss seasons without getting fired.
The money involved in baseball these days, our short-attention-span, and Callaway’s own lack of a resume will deny him a chance at history. The Mets won’t just bad in the Stengel years. They were downright historically bad.
Only five managers in franchise history have a winning percentage over .500. It’s not uncommon. Winning managers tend to stick around more and losing ones are often replaced quickly.
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The book on Callaway not nearly finished. He can rest well knowing he’ll never become the worst manager in franchise history. Due to the circumstances, that title will forever belong to Casey Stengel.