As was widely reported late yesterday afternoon, Omar Minaya went off the deep end during his Tony Bernazard press conference,
strongly implying that The New York Daily News’ Adam Rubin’s reporting
of the Bernazard shenanigans was motivated by Rubin being frustrated
after not getting a job with the Mets for which he lobbied, or wanting
to get Bernazard fired to take his job, or something along those lines.
At least that’s what I took from it. However you slice it, it was
bizarre. Go watch it here if you missed it.
Rubin was livid during the presser — thanks for the split screen SNY! — and today he responds:
As I told the reporters who descended upon me after Minaya left the
press conference, I have never, ever, asked Omar Minaya for a job. Or
even career advice. Frankly, I’ve never been very close to him. What I
have done, and what Mets COO Jeff Wilpon acknowledged later yesterday,
is ask Wilpon for “career advice.” My question: Is it even remotely
feasible for a baseball writer to get into an administrative job with a
team – any team – down the road and what would I need for that to be
achieved?
Wilpon once invited me to his office at Citi Field for an advisory session. I never took him up on it.
Some people are complaining about Rubin’s potential ethical lapses
in all of this, but I don’t have much of a problem with him talking
generally with the Mets about his career prospects, if that’s all he
did. It’s a tough world out there, and the kinds of journalistic
integrity principles people cite in such situations – you can’t
possibly talk to the people you cover about anything! — seem kind of
quaint in a world where everyone is hustling to stay alive all the damn
time. Besides, this is tabloid journalism we’re talking about here. If
what they’re reporting is true — and Rubin’s stories about Bernazard
have not been questioned on that front — I really don’t care what
Rubin’s career development plan looks like. And even if that truly
matters, there is nothing short of Omar Minaya’s insane ramblings to
support the notion that Rubin wrote what he wrote out of spite or
anything. The Bernazard stories were legit news, and he got the stories
right. That, as they say, should be the end of the story.
The bigger question here is why anyone lets Omar Minaya near a
microphone. Or near the controls of a baseball team for that matter.
Bernazard was his guy, and look how well that turned out. The Mets are
his team, and look how good that’s going. Rather than take
responsibility for any of that, he’s setting the phasers for “paranoid”
and going out and attacking reporters.
If I worked for the Mets’ media relations department, I’d be
hesitant to knock down the press conference table this morning, because
by all rights there should be another one very, very soon.
