-Let me introduce you to Tony Bernazard. He played in the bigs from 1979-1991 in, as you can see, the golden era for mustaches in baseball. He had a spectacularly mediocre career; .260 average, 75 dingers, a few hundred rbi, nothing to really write home about. Now he is an executive in the Mets organization. He is officially an assistant to Mets GM Omar Minaya, but he pretty much just does whatever needs to be done. At some point, somebody decided he would be a good influence on some of the younger prospects; somebody decided wrong.
Recently, the double-A Binghamton Mets have undergone somewhat of a losing streak. They were 1-6 in a 7 game stretch and had lost the majority of those games by a bunch of runs. Bernazard took it on himself to help the team, ummmmm, re-capture its focus is I think the nicest way I can describe it. After one of those games, Bernazard delivered what i suppose was intended to be a motivational speech. Unfortunately it didn't really come out that way.
Reports say Bernazard entered the room, promptly removed his shirt (as is the case with any successful motivational speech; there is nothing more inspiring than a middle-aged man's nipples, nothing) and challenged the team to fight him. Its unclear if he challenged the team to line up and take turns fighting him individually, or if he wanted the whole team at once, but that isn't really important.
No one is denying that the team needed a talking to. In addition to their poor performance, there was some rumored under-age drinking going on with some of the teams younger prospects. But that talking to could have been delivered while clothed, and in a much less confrontational way.
The act was not only obscene, it has also proven to be ineffective. The little Mets are under .500 since the tirade, and I'm sure that there is still underage drinking going on (there always is). The speech was only successful in that it made Bernazard a personal hero of mine, but I don't think that was its intention.
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