Terry Collins to be featured on next MLB Network Presents
There are few more interesting people in baseball today than New York Mets manager Terry Collins, so it’s only fitting he’ll be featured on the next episode of the MLB Network Presents.
Terry Collins: A Life In Baseball will premiere on Tuesday, Jan. 12 at 9:00 p.m. ET. The one-hour program provides an in-depth look into Collins’ life in baseball, a life that would be best described as a roller coaster ride. From the lows of never making it to the big leagues as a player, to the highs of predicting a postseason berth and then leading his Mets to the World Series in 2015, we’ll see and hear all about it from Collins’ perspective.
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For those more interested in recent history, that is covered as well. Collins discusses his decision to let starting pitcher Matt Harvey begin the ninth inning of Game 5. A decision that ultimately backfired and led to Kansas City clinching the World Series at Citi Field. Collins take it on head-on, which is a running theme throughout his baseball career.
The documentary also includes comments from Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon, who served as Collins’ bench coach with the Angels and whose Cubs bowed out to the Mets in the NLCS. Their history together is a fascinating subplot to Collins’ career. World Series winning managers Tony La Russa and Jim Leyland also weigh in on Collins’ evolution over the years that led him to become one of baseball’s most tenacious leaders.
Here’s a little more information from the MLB Network press release.
At the site where he managed the Vero Beach Dodgers in 1982, Collins walks the grounds of Dodgertown reminiscing about Leyland’s impact on him breaking into the Major Leagues. Following his time with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Collins revisits his unceremonious managerial departures from the Houston Astros and Anaheim Angels organizations in 1996 and 1999. After being a manager for two different organizations, Collins talks about his once bleak outlook of landing another managerial position and the eight different baseball jobs he experienced before being named the Mets skipper in 2011.
What will become very clear during this program is how hard Collins has had to battle for every opportunity he’s received in baseball, and how he’s had to battle even harder to sustain them. He obviously relishes the challenge involved and will continue that battle in New York with expectations and stakes that are higher than ever.
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This is another in a long list of can’t miss MLB Network Presents features. We hope you’ll find the time to check it out and hopefully gain a whole new level of respect for Terry Collins.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813
