Wally Backman
From The Met Wiki
Wally Backman was an infielder for the Mets from 1980 to 1988. He batted .283 and scored 359 runs in his nine seasons with the team. Backman also had 106 stolen bases as a Met.
Backman got his major league career started with 53 games in 1980 and 1981. Over these two seasons, he had 40 hits in 129 at-bats for a .310 batting average. At Los Angeles on September 2, 1980, Wally got a run-scoring single in his first major league at-bat and drove in another run with a double later in the game. He also had four singles, two runs scored and a stolen base against the Pirates at Shea Stadium on October 1, 1980.
In 1982, Backman appeared in 96 games for the Mets. He had 71 hits for 97 total bases during the year. At Atlanta on May 26, Wally hit his first major league home run. It was a three-run blast that gave the Mets a 6-4 win over the Braves. He singled and had two doubles in the Mets' 5-4 victory at Montreal on June 29. Backman hit an inside-the-park home run in a 9-4 Mets win over the Pirates at Shea on July 31. He also had a single, two doubles and a stolen base in the Mets' 7-4 triumph at Chicago on August 4.
After spending most of the 1983 season in the minor leagues, Wally played in 128 games with the Mets in 1984. As the team's regular leadoff hitter, he hit .280 and drew a career-high 56 walks. At Shea on April 18, Backman became a hero with a two-out, two-run double in the ninth inning that gave the Mets a 5-4 win over the Expos. He scored the winning run in the 13th for a 2-1 Mets victory at Pittsburgh on June 6. Wally had a single in the 12th inning that drove in the winning run for a 4-3 Mets victory over the Cardinals at Shea on July 23. At San Francisco on August 17, he hit a two-run homer in the 10th inning to give the Mets a 2-0 triumph over the Giants.
With the arrival of Len Dykstra, Backman settled into the second batting position in 1985. For the season, he had a career-high 38 runs batted in, led the Mets with 30 stolen bases and tied for the National League lead with 14 sacrifice bunts. Wally had a double and four singles in a 6-0 Mets win over the Pirates at Shea on April 26. He hit his only home run of the year in the Mets' 6-1 victory at Atlanta on July 5. From July 25 to August 15, Backman hit safely in 18 of 19 games, batting .450 with 36 hits in 80 at-bats. He also had three singles, a double and a stolen base in the Mets' 12-1 rout of the Pirates at Shea on September 21.
In the Mets' World Championship season of 1986, Backman had 149 total bases and a .320 batting average. He also scored 67 runs during the year. Wally had four singles and scored three times in a 10-5 Mets victory at Atlanta on April 29. At Cincinnati on May 4, he had two singles, two doubles and two runs scored in the Mets' 7-2 win. Backman drove in five runs in the Mets' 13-2 rout of the Astros in Houston on July 17. In the second game of a doubleheader at Shea on September 7, he singled three times and stole two bases in a 6-5 Mets win over the Padres.
On September 17, 1986, Backman got the assist on Chico Walker's ground ball for the final out of the Mets' 4-2 win over the Cubs at Shea. The victory gave the Mets the National League East Division championship. Five days later, Wally hit his only home run of the season on his 27th birthday as the Mets defeated the Cardinals at Shea, 5-2.
In the '86 National League Championship Series, Backman had five hits and scored five runs. In Game 3 of the series on October 11, he led off the ninth inning with an infield single before Dykstra hit a two-run homer for a 6-5 Mets win over the Astros at Shea. In Game 5, he scored the winning run on Gary Carter's single in the 12th that gave the Mets a 2-1 victory over Houston on October 14. Wally hit .333 and scored four runs in the Mets' seven-game triumph over the Red Sox in the '86 World Series.
In 1987, injuries limited Backman to 94 games. He had 75 hits for 86 total bases and scored 43 runs. On April 16, Wally had three runs scored in a 9-3 Mets victory at Philadelphia. He singled three times, scored twice and had an RBI in the Mets' 8-7 win at San Francisco on May 25. Backman had three singles and two RBIs in a 13-3 Mets win over the Phillies at Shea on August 5. He hit his only homer of the year in a 6-5 Mets win in 10 innings at San Diego on August 31.
Backman hit .303 in 99 games in 1988. He had 12 doubles among his 89 hits as the Mets won their second division title in three years. Against the Dodgers at Shea on May 31, Wally had a two-run single in the fifth inning and a run-scoring single in the 10th in the Mets' 11-inning, 5-4 victory. He singled, doubled and scored twice in a 9-0 Mets win over the Pirates at Shea on June 21. Backman had a single, two doubles and two RBIs in the Mets' 5-1 win at Los Angeles on August 23. He also had six hits against the Dodgers in the National League Championship Series.
Following the '88 season, Backman was traded to the Minnesota Twins. After a season with the Twins, he played for the Pirates, Phillies and Mariners before the end of his career in 1993. Wally went on to become a manager for minor and independent league teams. In 2010, Backman led the Mets-affiliated Brooklyn Cyclones to a division title in the New York-Penn League.
