The position of manager for the Long Island Ducks is now open following the conclusion of the 2023 season for the Atlantic league’s most successful franchise.
The incumbent Wally Backman and the Long Island Ducks have mutually agreed to part ways following the season according to the team’s Instagram page. This came almost immediately after the Flock won their division in the first half of the season and clinched a playoff berth. They would go on to lose in the first round.
Backman took over for the Ducks in 2019 and he has lead them to four playoff berths, two Atlantic League Championship Series berths (2019, 2021), and one Atlantic League Championship victory in his first year as manager in 2019.
This comes as a bit of a surprise to everyone as not many fans expected Backman to leave just yet but apparently after this most recent postseason loss, both parties look like they want to go their separate ways and pursue other options.
“We want to thank Wally for all his contributions over the past five years,” said Ducks Owner/CEO Frank Boulton. “We wish him the best moving forward.”
This may impact the rest of the staff as well as many of these guys have been mainstays throughout the 2010s and into the 2020s.
The 64-year-old Backman may be officially done with managing but it has been one heck of a career in baseball that began in 1980 with the New York Mets as a player. From 1980-1988 he was a fan favorite on the Mets teams that featured greats like Dwight Gooden, Darryl Strawberry, and Keith Hernandez. He most notably played a combined 269 games during the 1985-86 seasons where he hit .293 and held down second base for the 1986 World Series Champion Mets when they beat the Boston Red Sox in a dramatic seven game series.
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| Wally Backman File Photo |
Backman also made headlines as he nearly won the Mets manager job after the firing of Charlie Manuel in 2011 while managing in the Mets minor league system before ultimately losing the bid to Terry Collins.
Backman also was a part of some controversy back in 2004 when he was hired by the Arizona Diamondbacks to be the head coach of the team and information was released that he misled the organization about his past. The New York Times reported that he was in serious legal and financial trouble that included filing for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy and a DUI charge back in 1999.
The Ducks will now move on from the aforementioned Backman and at this time there are no leads on who will become the next manager. Hitting Coach/Outfielder Lew Ford could be a dark horse candidate to become the next Ducks Manager, but it is not a certainty he will be picked or even on the staff beyond this season.