"Carlos Mendoza Wasn't the Problem!" Terry Collins Calls Out the Mets

**Craig Carton** (0:00)
Joining us now is our old buddy Terry Collins, who obviously has been a manager in baseball. He actually resigned from the New York Mets, wasn't fired in the manner that Mendy was, but he'll have some good insight to it. Terry, it's The Carton Show. Great to have you here. How you been, pal?

**Terry Collins** (0:15)
Good, Craig. How are you? Nice to talk to you.

**Craig Carton** (0:17)
Doing good. I'm sure you get no joy out of this news today, having been in Carlos' seat multiple times throughout your managerial career. So before I ask you questions, why don't you just kind of give me your overview of what you thought when the news became official this morning?

**Terry Collins** (0:33)
Well, yeah, I didn't hear it for a while. And then when I finally heard it, I was a little surprised, especially after, you know, last month, where they said, look, it's not a manager situation. He's going to stay, you know, and then a month later, all of a sudden, it wasn't good enough. But I, you know, it's sad. I like Carlos a lot. He's really one of the good guys in the game. I thought, Craig, that he was accountable for all of the decisions he made. All the time, he was with the Mets. I thought he did a great job. Obviously, two years ago, I mean, when they were in this huge slump and to get into the divisional, actually the championship series was a tremendous job. And so it just comes with the territory.
And I actually called Carlos today just to tell him I was thinking about him. And, you know, and we both said, hey, look, this is what happens. You know, you have huge expectations.
You don't, they're not achieved, they're not reached, and someone's going to fall on the sword. You know, accountability. And well, a lot of times it's the manager. And I've been there and, you know, you think sometimes you're really working your butt off, doing a decent job. And then, you know, when the team doesn't play good, you're accountable for it. So that's part of the business. And I feel terrible for them, but I just hope Andy and I, you know, I liked Andy Green a lot. I was actually the field coordinator and Andy was playing with AAA with the Mets.

**Craig Carton** (1:55)
Got it.

**Terry Collins** (1:56)
So I hope Andy, I hope something gets going where these guys turn it around and at least, you know, even if they don't get in the postseason, to make the last three months of the summer exciting in Queens.

**Craig Carton** (2:08)
Yeah, it's interesting you say that because most Mets fans feel like this season is a wrap, that you have 13 games under 500, you know, 10 games out of the wild card spot, et cetera, et cetera, that we're now just going through the motions. You don't view it that way. You think there's something to play for still?

**Terry Collins** (2:26)
Well, I always do, Craig. I mean, you got to. This is the big league, you know, and you know, nobody feels sorry for you. Nobody on the other side of the field feels sorry for you, you know, and you've got to show up every day and get yourself ready to play because that's what your job is. You know, if you're a player and you just want to fold it up and then you don't belong in the big leagues. You know, this is, you know, people pay a lot of money to come to those games and they want to see the best effort they can see. And that's the only way that I believe players should go about it. Every night, every single night, you got to leave it on the field. And yes, sometimes that may result in somebody diving for a ball and hurting their shoulder or something else. But you know what, that's what that's what the people pay for. And I think right now you're looking at, so let's just say the next 50 games, they go 35 and 15
You know, and gosh, you know, that's going to get you right. That's going to get you back in it.

**Craig Carton** (3:19)
I appreciate the mention. I totally understand where you're coming from. For me to try to figure out how this particular team with the talent they've got on the field could do something like that, seems like it's fantasy land. But I appreciate as a manager, you have to do it that way. And I understand that.

**Terry Collins** (3:36)
And I understand that. But you just said it. They got talent.