Mets manager Terry Collins, a baseball lifer, gets his shot at World Series – USA TODAY
Bob Nightengale, USA TODAY Sports 
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USA TODAY Sports’ Bob Nightengale breaks down the 2015 World Series.
USA TODAY Sports
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Terry Collins’ cell phone buzzes with hundreds of text messages and telephone calls. It’s Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax calling one day, pitching great Don Newcombe the next, and even New York Giants coach Tom Coughlin.
Friends, family and celebrities he’s never met, all utter the same words: “Good luck, Terry! Have fun!”
Collins’ response: “Yeah, right.”
The New York Mets may be in the World Series for the first time in 15 years, trying to win their first World Series title in 29 years, with a 66-year-old man managing in the postseason for the first time in his life.
It’s a time Collins should cherish .
You bring that up to Collins, and he laughs, right in your face.
Sorry, it doesn’t quite work that way. This is New York.
Collins has taken the Mets to a place no one envisioned, playing the Kansas City Royals in the World Series beginning with Game 1 Tuesday night (8:07 ET, FOX) at Kauffman Stadium, but he has less job security than the peanut vendors.
“I remember talking to Terry early this year,” Baltimore Orioles pitching coach Dave Wallace told USA TODAY Sports, “and he said, ‘If I don’t win, I’m fired. I know it.’
“To see what he’s done, to me, this is poetic justice. By God, they better take care of him.’”
Collins, with his contract expiring when the World Series ends, hasn’t had a single conversation about a contract extension with Mets GM Sandy Alderson, and technically, could still be out of work when it’s over. The Mets have a one-year club option in 2016 that they have yet to exercise.
Considering that Collins is the Mets’ most popular manager since Davey Johnson three decades ago, it would make more sense to tear down the Statue of Liberty than part ways with Collins.
“I quit worrying about that stuff,” Collins said. “When I got this job, I told myself, ‘Have fun with it. Don’t take it so seriously.’
“Now that I’m old enough, who gives a (bleep).”
That’s Collins, fearless in his actions, unafraid to show his emotions and speak with no filter.
“He’s a pretty amazing fella,” first baseman Luca Duda said. “He’s fiery, gets you motivated, and knows the game since he’s been in it longer than most of us have been alive.
“You can’t help but feel very privileged and very fortunate to play under him, and it’d be nice to get him some hardware for what he’s meant to us.”
It’s a different Collins than the one who was fired 19 years ago as the Houston Astros manager, resigned from the Los Angeles Angels in 1999 when the players lobbied to have him fired, and managed the Orix Buffaloes in Japan, the China National team and the Duluth Huskies of the Northwoods League before the Mets took a two-year gamble on him for the 2011 season.
The man completely reinvented himself, turning the clubhouse over to his players, where they determined a dress code, had a say in team rules and what’s expected out of them every day.
Collins never ripped them apart in the media when they stunk this season, never criticized when they were nothing more than mediocre, and refused to take any credit when they started running away from the Washington Nationals in the NL East.
“He’s been awesome, man,” veteran outfielder Michael Cuddyer said. “This year, he was so good at letting us go through the phases of the season, going through the win streak, the down times in May and June.
“He didn’t call team meetings. He didn’t panic. He didn’t throw us under the bus. He just let us play through the course of the season.
“Now, the team ultimately rewarded him with his patience.”
Collins, a dinosaur in today’s game with his 40 years of baseball experience and background, has become a New York pop star with the Mets’ rise to prominence. He’s a hero to baseball’s old guard, with former managerial greats Joe Torre, Tony La Russa and Jim Leyland gushing over him. His players, like Kelly Johnson, call him a cross pollination of Bobby Cox, Buck Showalter and Joe Maddon with his optimism, preparation and brilliance.
Even the Royals sing Collins’ praises, resurrecting memories of the late Dick Howser, the last manager to lead the Royals to the World Series championship in 1985.
“I love Terry Collins,” Royals GM Dayton Moore said. “I’ve always admired his fire and his passion for the game. He’s done an unbelievable job. You can’t help but admire him.”
Oh, and to think, when Collins walked away from that Angels’ job with 29 games left to play in the 1999 season, he wondered if he had managed his last game.
“You don’t walk away from these jobs,” Collins said. “Not on your own. Know what I mean? You can get fired and get other jobs. But when you quit on your own, that’s not a good, wise decision.
“But I knew one thing. When the fun is gone, you’d better do something else. And at that particular time, what was going on with the Angels, it was no fun.
“It wasn’t fun to go to the park, and as much as I loved it there, it just wasn’t going to work. I said, ‘I got to go.’ That day, I walked away and said, ‘This may be the last time I do this.’ “
It wasn’t his fault the Angels stunk, said Bill Bavasi, the Angels’ GM at the time, but Collins took all of the blame for the divisive clubhouse and their losing ways.
“Sometimes, the timing isn’t right,” Bavasi said. “The crew we had individually was great, but collectively, they were a mess. It was toxic. He took way too much of the blame for something like that.
“So when Terry got the Mets job, he told me he was going to approach things much differently with the players. He made adjustments. A lot of people would have taken the job and done what they’ve always done. But Terry swallowed his pride and changed.
“Really, I couldn’t be happier for him.”
The baseball establishment continued to love Collins for his baseball acumen, but still, no one was ready to make him their manager. Paul DePodesta, GM of the Los Angeles Dodgers, was the first one to give him another shot. He planned to hire Collins as his manager after the 2005 season. Only DePodesta got fired before he had a chance, and the Dodgers turned to Grady Little.
Now, a decade later, look who’s getting the last laugh? The Dodgers have gone through seven managers, and are about to hire their eighth, since last getting to the World Series. And here is Collins, the man they should have hired all along, leading the Mets to the mountaintop of the National League.
“People don’t realize everything he’s gone through,” said Wallace, a former Mets pitching coach. “You’re talking about going through all of the (Bernie) Madoff stuff, the rebuilding, the financial constraints, and look at them now. It’s a beautiful thing to see.”
Alderson, who acknowledges this is the first year he has provided Collins the talent to even have a chance to win, said they’ll sit down and have contract talks once the season ends. They’ve had their ups and downs, and sometimes Alderson will cringe reading what Collins told the media, but he also knows that he’s got somebody pretty special.
So the perfect guy, at the right time, for this job?
“Perfection is a hard thing to attain,” Alderson said, “but he’s been great in this situation. No question about it. We’ll talk when the season is over.
“But the season is not over.”
It may not be over until you see that old guy crying, the one who was kissed by fans after they beat the Dodgers in the NL Division Series and sprayed champagne on fans himself after knocking off the Chicago Cubs in the NLCS.
“I’m thrilled to death to be here,” Collins said. “I can honestly tell you, being in baseball for 45 years, it tells you how hard it is to get here. So you better enjoy it.
“We’re in the World Series.
“Holy crap, can you believe it?”
Follow columnist Bob Nightengale on Twitter @BNightengale.
GALLERY: HOW THEY MATCH UP
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