During his ten seasons with the New York Mets, Mookie Wilson regularly served as a catalyst at the top of the batting order.
So, when his playing days were up, it made sense to move him into a role within the ball club. From 1996-2002, the former outfielder served as the team’s first base coach…a position he would resume in 2011 after spending time as a manager within the Mets’ Minor League system. It wasn’t long, however, before Wilson would be removed from his coaching gig and moved into an “ambassador” position.
Unfortunately, the former outfielder has no clue what he’s supposed to be doing. And he’s not happy about it.
“It’s sad to admit this, but I have basically become a hood ornament for the Mets. I have no decision-making role at all in my job description. I would have liked an explanation as to why I was moved from first base coach to the ambassadorship, but none was ever given,” Wilson writes in his biography Mookie: Life, Baseball and the ’86 Mets. “I understand that jobs come and go in the baseball business, but sometimes management loses sight of how these moves play with people’s lives.”
Preach on, Brother Mookie.
“For as difficult as it is, I don’t think it really bothers team management, and that troubles me. I don’t care about not having a job,” Wilson continued in the memoir co-authored by Erik Sherman. “If they fire me because they have a better replacement, that’s fine. But when no information is given as to why a move is made, it’s much worse than getting an explanation I might disagree with. They just dictated my career as a player and a coach and it wasn’t right.”
Not the most flattering words, right? Here’s how the team responded to the New York Post when presented with the quotes from Wilson.
“We are pleased that Mookie accepted our offer to rejoin the organization in 2012 and continue with us in spring training and during the season as a roving instructor and Club Ambassador,” the statement said.
What? Wouldn’t it have been easier for the organization to just say “no comment”?!?
Monday, Wilson joined “The Daily Show” to talk the 1986 Mets and his relationship with some of his former teammates with Jon Stewart.
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