Wally Backman

[William Malone]

Walter Wayne Backman was born on September 22, 1959 in Hillsboro, Ohio.

The New York Mets used their first round pick on him in 1977, and he made his Major League debut for them in 1980. Backman spent several years as a backup infielder,  but finally became the primary starter at second base in 1984. He hit a career best .320 for the Mets in 1986, and New York won the World Series that fall. Blackman scored the game tying run in the sixth inning of game seven against the Boston Red Sox. The Mets won 8-5, despite falling down 3-0 early.

Backman was traded to the Minnesota Twins after the 1988 season. He had hit .283 during his nine seasons in Queens.

His lone season with the Twins got off to a great start. Backman had eight multi-hit games in April, finishing the month with a .298 average. He began May on a 1-for-12 skid, and wound up producing arguably the worst season of his career when it was all over. Backman slashed .231/.306/.284 that year. Multiple trips to the disabled list limited him to just 87 games.

He signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates as a free agent that off-season, and had a bounceback year. Backman hit .292 in 1990, helping Pittsburgh squeeze out a tight NL East race against his old Mets teammates. He played three more seasons after that, but looked more like the Minnesota version of himself.

Backman has been a long time minor league and independent ball coach since his playing days ended. The Arizona Diamondbacks hired him to be their big league manager in 2004, but they fired him just five days later after learning about his failure to disclose some legal issues during the hiring process. He returned to managing in the minor leagues, heading various teams in the Mets minor league system between 2008 and 2016. Backman resigned after the 2016 season, following a public spat with big league general manager Sandy Alderson.

He managed the New Britain Bees of the Atlantic League in 2017, and then managed the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League from 2018 through 2023. Former Twins outfielder Lew Ford replaced him as Ducks manager.

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