Walter Wayne Backman (born September 22, 1959) is an American former Major League Baseball second baseman. He is best known for his time with the New York Mets from 1980-1988 and was a member of their 1986 World Series-winning team. He was also the former manager for the Las Vegas 51s, the Mets’ AAA minor league team, from 2013 to 2016. He served as the bench coach for the Pericos de Puebla of the Mexican Baseball League in 2017.
Prior to the start of the 1986 season, general manager Frank Cashen brought in Tim Teufel, a right-handed hitting infielder from the Minnesota Twins for Billy Beane, Joe Klink and Bill Latham. He and Backman formed a platoon at second base, and along with Wilson and Lenny Dykstra, provided a “spark” at the top of the Mets’ line up, and set the table for the heavy hitters who batted behind them.
For his own part, Backman scored 67 runs, stole 13 bases and batted over .300 (.320) for the first time in his career for the team that won 108 games and took the National League East by 21.5 games. He batted .333 in the World Series against the Boston Red Sox and led off for the Mets in the now famous tenth inning of Game 6 with a fly out to Jim Rice.
Here is a ‘somewhat’ controversial play from GM3 1986 NLCS:
