The reason Bobby Valentine decided to take the lineup card to home plate Saturday to meet face-to-face with Cubs manager Don Baylor was because a more conventional way of communicating – via telephone – proved unsuccessful.
“I kept trying to call, but I couldn’t get an answer,” Valentine said.
Valentine tried to contact Baylor because the Cubs’ manager verbally assaulted Valentine and indicated he wouldn’t mind doing it physically as well during the Mets-Cubs Japan trip to begin the season.
Then, before this weekend’s Mets-Cubs series, Baylor said that he would take out the lineup card, but he bet that Valentine wouldn’t.
Considering Valentine had never taken out a lineup card in his 534 games as Met manager before the weekend, it looked as if Baylor’s odds of being right were good.
But with the prodding of Darryl Hamilton, who played for Baylor in Colorado, Valentine brought out the card before the first game of the Mets’ doubleheader sweep Saturday.
When asked about Valentine before yesterday’s 15-8 Cubs loss, Baylor said, “I’m done with that. Don’t ask me about that.”
Baylor left Shea this weekend embarrassed by the Cubs’ play after his team lost all three games by a combined score of 30-17.
“We, overall, just haven’t played well on this trip or any other trip,” said Baylor, who threatened his team with lineup changes. “It seems we can’t stop it. I’m going to stop it.”
GM Steve Phillips was OK with Valentine taking out the lineup card for the first time.
“It is fine with me,” said Phillips, who loathes even the mildest hint of controversy. “I didn’t make much of it.”