Reese Kaplan -- Art Howe's Mets 2-Year Tenure

The Mets have had their share of managers over the course of the franchise’s history.  Some were mostly beloved like Gil Hodges, Davey Johnson and Bobby Valentine.  Some were totally despised like Dallas Green, Jeff Torborg and Art Howe.  Then there were others who should have been despised but were sheltered by the front office like Terry Collins.  At one time the front office was not tolerant of 7 years of an overall losing record.

When Art Howe was brought in to manage the Mets he had some legitimate cred.  He worked with an underachieving Houston Astros team for five years from 1989 through 1993.  He never won a pennant there, but his overall record was smack in the middle of the road.  

From there he was hired on the west coast by the Oakland A’s.  The first three years were more of the same with finishes in the 3rd and 4th places in the division, but then things started to click.  In 1999 he finished in second and in 2000 finished in 1st.  2001 was another 2nd place finish and 2002 was yet another 1st place record.  He looked like he might have been a late bloomer as his best work was his final four of seven in Oakland.  

Perhaps it was that strong four consecutive years that made him appealing to the Mets in 2003 when they were in search of a new man to take the helm in New York.  Bobby Valentine was coming off a seven year stretch during which he finished with a positive .534 winning percentage.  Valentine was a strong personality type and part of the reason he was likely sent packing was that he was becoming a bigger celebrity than the owners and the GM.  

Art Howe was a quiet, studious guy who we were told “lit up the room” during his hotel room interview.  That assessment by the Wilpons came as something of a surprise from the folks who knew Howe, but Fred Wilpon assured everyone he was the right man for the job.  

''He blew me away in a quiet, dignified, strong way. He just reminded me so much of some great leaders.''  

Wilpon used the examples of Joe Torre and Bobby Cox as strong leaders who didn’t feel they needed to be the top of any news story.  Considering the Mets had familiarity with Torre as a fairly useless manager, that evaluation was somewhat questionable.  

Still, Howe had a great recent record and everyone wanted them to bring in his winning culture.  Valentine was heading up a strong team and the thought was that this lower key manager might be able to kick them up to the next level of competitiveness.

Unfortunately, that was not to be.  In Howe’s first year as a Mets manager he went 66-95, finishing in 5th place.  His follow up season was not much better.  He did improve to 4th place but the record was a still a lackluster 71-91.  Two years of losing was enough for the owners and Howe was shown the door and apparently his way out of baseball.  He never managed again.  

This week the unfortunate news came out that Art Howe had contracted the COVID-19 virus and was in the ICU in a Houston area hospital near his home.  Baseball is just a game and surely as much as we all would have preferred a better record during Howe’s tenure in New York, no one wishes him anything other than a speedy recovery to enjoy his retirement.