I just heard on WFAN radio here in New York that Lou Pinella turned the Mets down to be the next manager. Who could blame him?

He knows he'll never get anything done with the absolutely Wil-ponderous owners having their hands in everything. Thats bad for Pinella not to want to leave a basically sinking franchise in the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

I like Pinella but personally I would prefer they stopped bringing in outsiders, my choice would be Wally Backman. This man knows how to do the little things to win. He's fiesty, won't let player's rule him, and he was voted minor league manager of the year. Some say Gary Carter is campaigning for the Mets Managerial job. Carter is a true great, but I don't think his players would relate to him. He couldn't relate to his team mates when he was a player. No one likes a phony, and thats what Carter is.

However we Met fans have to face facts, it doesn't really matter who the manager or the GM is if they can't run this team without the Wilpons sticking their noses into every little decision. I think that Pinella realized this, and he could never work for them, and I assume if they had the brains to offer Wally Backman the job he would turn it down too for the same reason.

I have a feeling we will be stuck with Don Baylor-that is if Baylor no longer feels loyal to Art Howe and decides to take the job. They will ask Baylor once they run through whoever their first few choices are and they say no.

If they wanted Baylor in the first place they would have told Art not to finish out the last few games of the season and had Baylor take over the team.

Hopefully Baylor will realize he is the booby prize and not accept.

I have heard rumblings about Jim Fregosi-if thats the case the Wilpons are even more out of touch with the fans than I thought. Fregosi symbolizes one thing to the Met fan-This is what we got for Nolan Ryan?

Who do you all think the manager should be? Send me an email, I'd love to hear your thoughts.