I had a long-sleeve shirt on. I’m a bike rider. I had taken a long bike ride before I went to the meeting, a 55-mile bike ride.
What happens when you exercise like that? Your body starts relieving that heat. I took the shirt off because I was hot. As simple as that. Maybe I took it off in the middle of the meeting. You’re upset, you get hot. All that s—, what is that? What a crime! I took my shirt off. By the way, I always wear a t-shirt.
– Tony Bernazard, as told to FoxSports.com.
OK, first of all, this is hilarious. No matter how hot I get in meetings here at the office, I never feel comfortable taking my shirt off.
That said, I think Bernazard makes a few reasonable points in the interview. For years, long before Bernazard’s firing, I heard Mets fans in media, on talk-radio, in comments sections and on message boards claiming Bernazard was at the root of every single one of the team’s problems. Bernazard, it seemed, became some sort of great big bugaboo, the mysterious embodiment of all that was wrong with the Mets.
People even bandy about terms like “evil” and “bad.” About a vice president of player development that they’ve never met.
I don’t know that I even believe in outright evil so much as some sort of sliding, fluctuating grayscale of human decency, and I really have no idea where Tony Bernazard falls on that. Maybe he’s a pretty mean guy. Maybe he’s just a serious baseball man who tends to be bristly with the media, and so he’s portrayed negatively, and fans run wild with it.
What I am certain of is that Tony Bernazard was not, is not, and never will be the source of every single one of the Mets’ problems. Even if he was truly a terrible jackass filled only with horrible ideas — which, again, I doubt — he was one cog in a very big wheel, and teams should obviously have checks and balances in place to prevent one errant cog from spinning out of control.
If the Mets continue winning, and by some chance succeed in 2010, someone will certainly point to the absence of Bernazard as a catalyst for change. And that will be, to me, almost as hilarious as a grown-ass man taking his shirt off in a meeting.
Tedquarters 
I’m gonna have to try going to a meeting shirtless some time. When the other attorneys point out that I have no shirt on, I’ll just say: “What? I just finished a long run and I’m hot. What’s the big deal?”
I’d like it if less people in the Mets front office, or very recently of the Mets front office, forced me to conjure images of Benny Blanco.
Also, the sliding grayscale of human decency… awesome way to put it. I’ll be lifting that for use in my own conversations at some point, I’m sure of it.
To be fair wasnt this meeting in a locker room? Where there are routinely a bunch of shirtless guys?
I understand that none of us would go to a meeting shirtless or take our shirts off in a meeting, but it sounds completely ridiculous because most of us are picturing it happening in our own lives, with most of us going to meetings in an office setting or board room etc.
If you think of this how it probably really happened, in a locker room, a guy taking his shirt off probbaly isnt as ridiculous as it sounds, if he did in fact have a t shirt under it. I’d have to think the locker room is a pretty casual place.
Tony was made out to be the embodiment of all that was wrong with the Mets by the media-no doubt about it. Remember all of the “Tony has Wilpon’s ear” stories?
That said, Tony should have adjusted his bristling approach because this is, after all, New York. And his attitude was a recipe for disaster.
What I could not understand (and what made me laugh out loud at the office) is how does a person take a 55 mile bike ride and then immediately go to a meeting without changing? I would figure the guys shirt would be covered in sweat to begin with! Or did he go Costanza on them and take a hot shower which caused him to sweat under the hot lights in the meeting room?
Or, considering that he was in charge of the Minors for a long time, maybe he should be given a smidgen of credit for strong performances being turned in by the youngsters right now?