Well, we have a new GM/coach combo in town, and time will tell if the Brodie Van Wagenen/Carlos Beltran partnership will bring joy, angst or something else to Mets fans.
So this is as good a time as any to rank what those partnerships look like across the landscape of New York sports. Spoiler alert: It’s mostly not pretty, and there is something of a low bar that Van-Beltran will have to live up (or down) to …
1. Lou Lamoriello/Barry Trotz, Islanders
In case you wondered if last season was a fluke, it was not. Sometimes it feels as if figuring out who will be good as the jobs of GM and coach seems as random as a lottery. And sometimes it just makes sense: Lamoriello is among the greatest executives in the history of the NHL, and Trotz is a Cup-winning coach who transformed everything about the Islanders the moment he walked into the dressing room. They are the blueprint. Everyone else can take notes.
2. Brian Cashman/Aaron Boone, Yankees
Sometimes, when you listen to the laments of Yankees fans, it’s hard to remember this combo has won 203 baseball games their first two years — and this year won 103 of them while flying on the seats of their pants, Cashman acquiring a gaggle of next-man-up fill-ins and Boone maximizing their performance every day for six months. They are as on the same page as any baseball combo anywhere, and that will yield fruit every year.
3. Sean Marks/Kenny Atkinson, Nets
Sometimes its felt the past few years as if these two were getting credit before it was due, almost on spec, but they have proven to be a dynamic combo for both procuring and developing talent. Neither seeks the spotlight — they actually seem to recoil from it — but before our eyes the Nets have become one of the true models of efficiency both in their sport and in our city.
4. Jeff Gorton/David Quinn, Rangers
The entirety of the blueprint hasn’t been realized yet, and the growing pains are substantial. But the Rangers have committed to and are beginning to execute what we long believed impossible in the big, bad city: a full and complete rebuild, committing to youth and growing it all organically. If it works it, will be wildly copy-catted, here and elsewhere.
5. Scott Perry/David Fizdale, Knicks
The Knicks, too, have decided to play the long game with their franchise, either by choice or by circumstance, and it’s far too early to give them any kind of grade. The team is younger now, and they play hard every night, and that’s a definite start. But only a start.
6. Ray Shero/John Hynes, Devils
Sadly, the deeper the hole the Devils keep digging for themselves this year the more it becomes apparent that even if you do everything right — and the Devils really have done most things right — the fickle nature of games involving scoreboards can still betray you.
7. Dave Gettleman/Pat Shurmur, Giants
And, look: Nos. 7 and 8 on this list are virtually interchangeable, but since the Giants have twice the wins as the Jets so far this year, here we are. Gettleman might yet be proven right with his vision of where the team is going, and he has in Shurmur a willing wing man, so that’s a start.
8. Joe Douglas/Adam Gase, Jets
It’s hard to have had a worse stretch than the Jets have over the past 10 months or so, starting with Gase’s hiring and the upheaval in the front office to the 1-6 start. And harder to envision this partnership is going to be around as long as, say, Keith Richards and Mick Jagger.
Vac’s Whacks
Look, I get as much as anyone the urge to fire coaches and managers, I do, even after just seven games, as with Adam Gase. Is it OK to note here that Kyle Shanahan started his career 0-9 and 10-24, though, and now sonnets are being written about him? Or that another coach who shall not be named started his second head-coaching job 5-13 in his first 18 games with New England?
Serious question: Are hockey referees under fire as relentlessly as umpires, football officials and basketball referees?
You’ll be happy to know, Yankees fans, that every Nationals and Astros fan I know thinks Joe Buck and John Smoltz are biased against their team, too.
A standing O, please, for Sunday’s finale of “The Affair,” which may well have been the most hate-watched show in television history.
Whack Back at Vac
Ruben Morales: Carlos Beltran has an opportunity to shine as the new manager of the Mets. But as you well know, it’s a hit or miss. Managing a team takes skill and just plain luck. I wish Carlos the best success he’s able to achieve. But I’m with you on this one, too. I’m surprised. We have to wait and see what happens.
Vac: What we always forget is that even the best managers were first-time managers at some point. If there were an obvious blueprint for identifying a can’t-miss choice, that would’ve happened by now.
Robert Stiskin: I have no idea how Carlos Beltran will do, but I know this: Nobody was hitting that Koufax-like curveball, and the social media experts should stop exposing their ignorance. I was there that night. Sometimes the pitcher just wins.
Vac: I wish I could count all the failed arguments I’ve had with people through the years on this subject. Fans want to see a hitter swing the bat. He could’ve swung six of them and not hit that pitch …
@JRRoberts8: So will he be giving take signs?
@MikeVacc: … which isn’t to say we can’t laugh every now and again.
Ron Goydic: Mike, I know that Supreme Court judges have a job for life, but does Knicks president Steve Mills have the same tenure with Jim Dolan?
Vac: The real question is, does Dolan have that tenure as well?