Bob Klapisch

Columnist, @BobKlap

Wally Backman will be managing in the Mexican League this summer, making sure to say he’s “grateful” to have a job — any job — in the aftermath of an ugly parting with the Mets. Backman will be leaving for south of the border in about a month, convinced he’s been blackballed by GM Sandy Alderson.

It’s an explosive charge, and not one that Backman makes lightly. But after a long winter of being turned down by other clubs, despite a willingness to start at the minor leagues’ lowest levels, Backman believes it’s his former boss who’s responsible.

Actually, Backman says it’s not a guess or a hunch. He claims a friend in the commissioner’s office has tipped him off that Alderson is working against him.

“There’s been a bad roadblock, and I know where it’s coming from,” Backman said by telephone from his home in central Oregon. “In the last phone call I had with Sandy [in September] he said, 'I will do anything I can to help you.' But he is not an honest man. People are telling me, 'Sandy has it in for you. You’re being blackballed.'”

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“I’ve talked to several teams, and every one of them has said, 'You’re overqualified.' How can you be overqualified when you’re trying to win? No one is overqualified unless there’s something else going on.”

Alderson declined to respond to Backman’s accusation, although a member of the organization insisted that despite their differences, Alderson would never go as far as to deliberately sabotage Backman.

Another non-Mets executive who has known Alderson for many years said, “It’s not Sandy’s nature” to be this vindictive. Yet Backman is at a loss to understand (a) why no one is willing to take a chance on him and (b) why Alderson fired him from his Class-AAA managerial position in the first place.

Was Backman dismissed or did he quit? It’s a matter of semantics, he said.

“I got a phone call and was told if I didn’t resign I would be let go,” Backman said, hearing that he’d somehow mishandled Michael Conforto and Brandon Nimmo during their minor-league stints in Las Vegas.

The indictment was confounding to Backman — it sounded like a trumped-up charge by an ownership group looking to get rid of him. Backman said all he did was give Conforto a day off after playing 19 games in a row; the first baseman started in 31 of the 33 games he played for the Las Vegas '51s. And, on orders from the front office, Backman batted Nimmo in the No. 1 or 2 spot in 84 of the 90 games before he was summoned to the big-league team.

And that was enough to fire Backman? It had to be more than that.

“The only thing I can think of is that I have a strong personality and Sandy didn’t want someone like me working for him anymore, even though I’d always treated him with total respect,” Backman said. “But no one was more loyal to this organization than me. No one wanted those kids to succeed more than I did.”

It’s for that reason Backman says, “I’ve been betrayed” by the Wilpons — specifically Jeff, not his father, Fred. “Jeff didn’t stand up for me” despite winning 376 games managing in the Mets’ farm system, capturing two Pacific Coast South Division titles and being named the PCS Manager of the Year in 2014. Now Backman is looking at another run of unemployment.

That’s why he’s agreed to manage the Monclova club in Mexico — in part because it’s a job, an income and a way to prove his career isn’t over. Backman said, “I like the idea of building from the ground up, developing talent and teaching. That’s what I do best.”

Backman, who speaks only a few words of Spanish, insists he’s not worried about the language barrier. He’s a motivator, and besides, he says, there’s a universality about winning that’ll make the gig a little easier.

That’s what Backman tells himself on the good days. But he won’t lie about waiting for the phone to ring. He’s supposed to fly to New York later this month for a screening with the MLB Network, just to see how he’d perform in front of a camera. Backman does have his strengths — he knows the game and obviously speaks his mind.

But whether Backman’s opinions are too raw for a network owned and operated by the commissioner’s office is another matter. Where Backman really belongs, of course, is in a dugout, either managing or as a bench coach. He still hasn’t given up.

“I would take It in a minute,” Backman said about a job offer in the U.S., even if it meant breaking his commitment to Monclova. “What I’m worried about is being out of sight, out of mind. If I go to Mexico, I’ll be out of sight from the people I’m trying to connect with.”

But every passing day brings him closer to that reality. Backman was asked to describe his state of mind. It took less than a second for him to answer.

“Discouraged,” is what Backman said.