The Binghamton Mets clubhouse nearly turned into a scene out of WWE Raw recently, when VP for player development Tony Bernazard removed his shirt and challenged the Double-A players to a fight during a postgame tirade, multiples sources told the Daily News.
Bernazard particularly went after middle infield prospect Jose Coronado, using a slang term associated with a woman’s anatomy, a source indicated. The confrontation happened about 10days before the All-Star break, according to insiders.
“That’s an all-timer if true,” an AL official said upon hearing the account, which was corroborated by multiple people with ties to the Mets.
GM Omar Minaya acknowledged Bernazard spoke to the B-Mets in a “stern voice,” but said he had no knowledge of the scope being portrayed.
“I know he did have a team meeting with them,” Minaya told the Daily News. “It was not a ‘you-guys-have-been-great meeting.’ I know he spoke to them in a stern voice. But as far as what he was wearing, what kind of shoes he was wearing, I don’t know anything about that.”
While the 52-year-old Bernazard’s actions were over-the-top no matter what the motivation, alleged underage drinking on the team apparently was one motivation for the eruption, an organization source said. Still, sending players to counseling rather than challenging them to a rumble might have been a more appropriate course of action.
Repoz
Posted: July 22, 2009 at 09:29 AM |
98 comment(s)
Login to Bookmark
Tags:
mets
Reader Comments and Retorts
Go to end of page
Statements posted here are those of our readers and do not represent the BaseballThinkFactory. Names are provided by the poster and are not verified. We ask that posters follow our submission policy. Please report any inappropriate comments.
1. Steve Parris, Je t'aime Posted: July 22, 2009 at 09:48 AM (#3262443)This is unreal.
DB
He called him a boob? What's the problem with that?
Oh, and way to call out the guy with a career .290 minor league slugging percentage. It's his demeanor that's the problem - not the fact that he has no offensive ability whatsoever.
Dolores?
Mulva!
Who is out to get Tony Bernazard? It's not that the man doesn't deserve to get fired - if 1/10 of the stories that have come out in the last week are true, he should have been fired years ago. It's that we're seeing this notebook dump right now. Someone's clearly trying to make Tony Bernazard the scapegoat for the Mets failures, either to placate the fans (if it's from ownership), or to save the ass of someone else in the front office (if it's, you know, someone else in the front office).
On the FAN yesterday Heyman pointed out that it's interesting it's always Rubin who breaks these Tony B. stories.
If any writer knows the value of having a trusted source...
Pussies, evidently.
Regardless, a 50 year-old man removing his shirt to challenge a 20 year-old to a fight is more than a little over the top.
I never understood guys who have to remove their shirts before they'll fight. What, is the shirt made of gold? I always assume a guy taking off his shirt before a fight is just stalling and desperately hoping someone will intercede and keep him from getting his ass kicked. Or they've had pectoral implants and just want to show off.
Mulva!
Reminds me of the old Chicago street name joke (or perhaps "trivia question" is more accurate)...
But with very few exceptions, most guys in their 50s would just embarrass themselves.
agreed, but most guys in their 50's therefor wouldn't pull the shirt off, pre-fight, which makes me think this guy is ripped (either on an absolute scale, or at least for his age).
Only in New York would there be news stories about an assistant GM-seriously, I couldn't tell you who my team's assistant GM is.
I'm choosing to interpret this as drunk ripped as opposed to built ripped.
The A's assistant gm is David Forst, but I only hear about him doing assistant gm stuff and because he occasionally does interviews about, you know, trades and drafts and such.
Possibly. Although I think that it's just as likely the guy is a delusional douche.
Picture Randy Marsh in that South Park episode where he kept fighting another parent at a youth sporting event.
I believe the Jays assistant GM is Tony LaCava, and I know that only because his name seems to come up every time a GM position becomes available.
It depends. How warm and humid is it? You don't want to put on a parka if you're in Miami in July, even if you're fighting a Klitschko.
Binghamton, though, that's iffy. More clothes might be a better option.
Really, the best strategy is to take off all your clothes, shave all body hair, cover yourself in vaseline and pull the other person's hair. Works for me every time.
I'm sorry, I thought this was America!
Of course, it takes a lot of patience by the other protagonist to make this strategy work, who really ought to throw the first punch somewhere in the shaving portion of the prep work.
Is there no longer honor among men?
They pull off the Halladay trade.
Wilpon is revealed to have been the photographer of the Erin Andrews video.
Also, if you suspect that the other guy has a knife, it's a good idea to take the shirt and wrap it around your lead arm, to use as a shield.
Paulina, Regina & Lunt?
It really is weird how all this is coming out at once given the current situation with the team and my guess is that Omar is throwing him under the bus.
That's known as "Hulking up"
It only counts as "Hulking up" if he tears it in half while removing it.
I work in Manhattan, I know people who live in Princeton and work in Manhattan- that's a long commute but doable. Princeton to Flushing? That's a bit longer...
Showmanship is 80% of wrestling, and little kids are 80% of wrestling fans. I don't mean to denigrate, as I'm a proud member of the remaining 20%. But look at what little kids like: superheros, hot dogs, cartoons. Hogan and Cena have much in common with 2 of the 3.
Yesterday, if not sooner...
(I've only been asking for this since the middle of 2006, FYI)
Close. Melvina (pronounced Mel-VY-na) in place of Regina.
Close. Melvina (pronounced Mel-VY-na) in place of Regina.
I thought it was going to have something to do with Wacker.
Color me shocked.
Yeah, they're made of some kind of meat, but God knows what's in there.
He was insanely fun to watch. Athleticism is a far second to, as Tropical said, showmanship. Every Hogan match was a fun, if predictable, piece of theater. It's not some 70-minute long New Japan title match; it's an entirely different beast.
Not to take issue with your appreciation of fine technical wrestling (which hey, I was a fan of too), but it's a lot harder to be a world-class showman than a skilled technical wrestler.
Except a suspension.
ay Dios mio.
Is that just a guess or do you know something Ryan?
Today's story about Bernazard being utterly unhinged is payback.
Well, it does... If you get lost trying to find the first 3, you default to the latter.
I know nothing about anything. I'm just recalling levski's performance on a couple recent Mets threads, and blindly linking it with his absence today. Nothing I say about this topic should be taken as accurate in any way.
Okay here are the rules. The top batting average for the month gets a new car. Second best batting average gets promoted to high A ball. Third place gets promoted to the big club.
Or any other topic, really.
Generally speaking, your statement is correct.
<shooty's robot brain explodes>
This doesn't make Omar look good, though. It makes him look like he has no idea what's going on and no control over it.
I second this question, Ryan.
Has anyone seen levski and Rubin in the same room at the same time (with shirts on, of course)?
Oh no, you didn't.
Naw. The non-trade is also damaging to the Wilpons, and Tony wouldn't risk that. His survival depends on staying on Jeff's good side.
I am this close to banning you...from my heart!
I wonder what my reaction would have been at 20 years of age if I had been advised to seek counseling for my underage drinking. Hmmmm.
But how would a 50-year old guy stripping and screaming have affected you? Sworn off drink forever?
I'm guessing more drinking.
Speak for yourself.
And heroin.
I suspect this is because Omar has no idea what's going on and no control over it.
I don't hate the Mets like I did in my youth - I even started to like them a little - but it still has been entertaining to watch them go off the rails. I really like David Wright and Johan Santana a lot as players, though, so I feel sorry for them. I hope they both publicly demand to be traded.
I've seen this happen. It's not as effective as you might think.
With all due respect...SHUT UP! ;-)
If the "investigators" are as effective as the medical/training staff...oy...
No, but Hulk Hogan did do an interview-- and I'm quoting exactly here-- saying, "The Big Hulkster in the Sky gave His life on the Cross so that the red and the yellow of Hulkamania would live forever." I'm not sure which translation he was using.
You must be Registered and Logged In to post comments.
<< Back to main