Skip to main content

Renney Days of Winter

In the seven seasons before Tom Renney took over as head coach of the New York Rangers, they failed to make the postseason, and never mustered more than 80 points.

In Renney's three full seasons as head coach, the Rangers managed at least 90 points in each instance, and made the playoffs on each occasion.

With the Rangers in sinking-ship mode, they fired Renney earlier this week, the first of two walk-off moves by the MSG suits, with Stephon Marbury's buyout being the other.

Marbury was rightfully shown the door. He hit the equivalent of a grand slam. In his time with the Knicks, he wrecked

* Head coaches
* Executives
* Ownership
* and the fan base

Renney was wrongfully let go. His misfortune was being the victim of unfair expectations and lousy upper management.

In each of the past three postseasons, the Rangers lost to a team that was better than them. And they were legitimately better than the pair of teams whom they beat. You could say that the Rangers didn't overachieve, but they didn't underachieve either. They achieved just right, which after so many years of embarasssment, was perfectly acceptable to this fan.

This past offseason, the Rangers lost Brendan Shanahan, Jaromir Jagr, among others, which in Metsian terms was the equivalent of letting Msrs. Hernandez and Strawberry walk away. They traded and signed players who were either old or inconsistent, which put Renney in a rather unfair position.

WFAN's Steve Sommers likened Renney to Art Howe, noting how the two were similar in postgame commentary and mild-mannered nature. I don't buy that there are any other similarities.

I never got the impression that Art Howe wanted to be here, that he was simply a Met for the money. Tom Renney was a part of the Rangers for nearly nine years. If he didn't want to be here, he wouldn't have been here.

Steve Serby of the New York Post did a Q&A with Renney about a month ago that I didn't get to read until just a few minutes ago. He talked about his love of New York City, tied to his presence there on September 11, 2001. He talked about sometimes taking a moment when he was behind the bench to be wowed by the fact that this was the team he was coaching. When asked what he wanted Rangers fans to remember most about him, he said "He cared."

One of my favorite Tom Renney memories is from Opening Night of either last season, or this one. Right before the Rangers took the ice, you could hear Renney's voice over the public address system, a taped speech about playing with pride, and understanding what it meant to be a New York Ranger.

It came across very true, and from the heart, at least to me. Now the Rangers bring in a coach who is a bit more fiery and the hope is that he'll be able to motivate the team in ways that Renney couldn't. I may like him. I may not.

But I'll appreciate what Tom Renney did during his time here. And I wish him good luck in his future.

True Metnney's know...The Rangers had 48 walk-off wins during Tom Renney's coaching career, defining a hockey walk-off as a game won in overtime, or via shootout. His walk-off won-loss record was 48-46.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Trip(le) Through Time

In their illustrious history, the Mets have had one 'Triple Crown Winner,' so to speak and I'm not talking about the typical meaning of the term. I've gotten some queries recently as to whether a walk-off triple is even possible and I'm here to tell you that it is. There has been one, and only one, in Mets history, though I don't have the full explanation of circumstances that I would like. It took place against the Phillies on September 10, 1970. This was a marathon game that would have fit in perfectly with those having taken place so far this season and allowed the Mets to maintain a temporary hold on first place in an NL East race oft forgotten in team history. It went 14 innings, with a tinge of controversy in a negated Ken Boswell home run, a thrilling play by Bud Harrelson, who stole home in the third inning, and some stellar relief pitching, in the form of five scoreless innings from Danny Frisella, aided by Tim McCarver getting thrown out in a rundown b

Best Games I Know: Phillies (Updated)

  The best wins against the Phillies in Mets history …   May 5, 2022 – Mets 8, Phillies 7 The Mets score 7 runs in the 9 th inning to overcome a 7-1 deficit and win in Philadelphia.   April 29, 2022 – Mets 3, Phillies 0 Tylor Megill and 4 Mets relievers combine on the second no-hitter in franchise history.   September 22, 2016 – Mets 9, Phillies 8 (11) The Mets tie it in the 9 th on a Jose Reyes home run and win it in the 11 th on a 3-run home run by Asdrubal Cabrera.   July 17, 2016 - Mets 5, Phillies 0 Jacob deGrom pitches a one-hitter. Only hit is a single by Zach Eflin in the 5 th inning.   August 24, 2015 – Mets 16, Phillies 7 David Wright homers in his first at-bat in more than 4 months. The Mets hit a team-record 8 home runs.   July 5, 2012 – Mets 6, Phillies 5 The Mets score 2 runs with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9 th to beat Jonathan Papelbon. The winning run scores on David Wright’s bloop down the right field line.   August 13

The best Mets ejections I know

When you think of the Mets and famous ejections, I'm guessing you first think of the famous Bobby Valentine mustache game, when after Valentine got tossed, he returned to the dugout in disguise. You know it. You love it. I remember being amused when I asked Bobby V about it while we were working on Baseball Tonight, how he simply said "It worked. We won the game." (true) But the Bobby V mustache game of June 9, 1999 is one of many, many memorable Mets ejection stories. And now thanks to Retrosheet and the magic of Newspapers.com , we have a convenient means for being able to share them. Ever since Retrosheet's David Smith recently announced that the Retrosheet ejection database was posted online , I've been a kid in a candy store. I've organized the data and done some lookups of media coverage around the games that interested me post. Those newspaper accounts fill in a lot of blanks. Without further ado (and with more work to do), here are some of my findings