Backman sees Mets get retribution at time of their choosing

You know it had to be a special occasion for Wally Backman to leave the 51s for three games during the middle of the season. He and the other 1986 Mets were invited to Citi Field on Saturday night to mark the 30-year anniversary of the baseball trickling through Bill Buckner’s legs.

And then in the top of the third inning of that night’s game, Noah Syndergaard, one of Backman’s throwers of flame in Las Vegas the past couple of seasons, reared back and fired a 99-mph scorcher in Chase Utley’s general direction.

The baseball sailed behind Utley’s back. It clanged off an advertising banner behind home plate.

Syndergaard immediately was ejected, as was Mets manager Terry Collins. Given the way the New York media descended on Backman after major league retribution was made, in a major league sort of way, you would have thought Backman himself had ordered it.

“It was a message, and I’d have to say it was on purpose because Noah doesn’t miss by that much,” Backman said in the shade of the 51s dugout before Las Vegas concluded a four-game series against the Memphis Redbirds at Cashman Field on a sultry Memorial Day.

The message was this: You slide hard and late into second base, you break the leg of our shortstop during the National League Division Series, there will be payback.

Backman, who hit a robust .320 in 387 at-bats for New York in 1986, said he didn’t see retribution coming Saturday night. But he knew it would come at some point.

There are unwritten rules in baseball, and even Bryce Harper must abide by them. And so when Utley violated an unwritten rule by taking out then-Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada like that, retribution was a foregone conclusion.

With Syndergaard on the mound, you knew it would be swift.

After that hammer toss from the strapping young man called Thor sailed behind Utley’s back and clanged against the backstop, the stoic Dodgers batsman went on to hit a solo homer and a grand slam. In Backman’s day, and Jerry Reuss’ day, that probably would have gotten Utley thrown at again.

“In my era, (when) somebody hit a home run, the next guy up got flipped,” Backman said.

One time, at baseball camp — or maybe it was just a night game in Pittsburgh—Backman recalled somebody on his side hitting a baseball a long way when he was in the on-deck circle. “I was the next guy up, and Jerry Reuss up in the (51s) broadcast booth hit me right in the (meaty area below the hip).”

Up in the broadcast booth, Reuss did not mention drilling Backman in the meaty area below the hip. He did remember a game when he was just starting out with the Cardinals, when Montreal’s Bill Stoneman was pitching Richie Allen and Jose Cardenal much too close, and Allen walked out to the mound to confront the Expos pitcher.

The benches cleared, except for Reuss.

When order was restored, Red Schoendienst, the St. Louis manager, said loud enough for everyone in the dugout to hear that there should be retribution against Stoneman for pitching the Redbirds’ hitters like that. Reuss had good hearing then. And Stoneman would coming up to bat soon.

Jerry Reuss would be fined by the National League of Professional Baseball Clubs. Red Schoendienst paid the fine.

So Reuss said he knew there would be retribution against Utley.

“My question is the time and execution. It was just too obvious,” said the big left-hander, who won 220 games in 22 major league seasons, and hit 59 batsmen with pitches in the ribs and elsewhere.

Reuss said the Mets and Dodgers had played a few games since the incident, and the Mets had let Utley slide. But in the back of his mind, Utley had to know one was coming at his ribs or elsewhere.

You saw what he did when the fear of reprisal was removed.

“Maybe he hits those home runs anyway,” Reuss said. “And maybe he doesn’t.”

After retribution, it was like after a mob hit. Nobody at the ballpark would talk about it. Except for Backman, who was quoted extensively by the New York Post.

So it took a few months, but now Chase Utley and the Mets are even. Just as Bob Gibson and Pete LaCock are even, though it took much longer than a few months for baseball justice to be administered.

Reuss told the story before the 51s game about how LaCock, the son of “Hollywood Squares” host Peter Marshall, had touched up Gibson for a grand slam toward the twilight of the latter’s great career. Gibson had a mean streak like a wolverine with a toothache, so when LaCock cleared the wall with the bases bombed, it didn’t go over particularly well.

“When I gave up a grand slam to Pete LaCock, I knew it was time to quit,” Gibson was to have famously said in the clubhouse.

True to his word, Bob Gibson retired before he could face Pete LaCock again.

Several years later, LaCock was playing in an Old-Timer’s Day game, and so was Gibson. When it was LaCock’s turn to bat, Gibson put himself in the game for Bob Feller.

Retribution was made with Bob Gibson’s first pitch. Pete LaCock took his base, trying not to rub too much where it hurt.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski