 and we have an excerpt now on that about the decision with Beltran in a question asked by Evan Roberts of WFAN. Everybody talked about the Astros cheating like it was out there that there was some some rumblings that they were doing something in 2017 when you're sitting there for eight hours with Carlos Beltran how does that not come up just that a curiosity when you're interviewing them for such an important position like being the manager of the Mets? It's important to remember the timeline and that's why I led with that today is that when we were going through our interview process in October there weren't rumblings or certainly we hadn't heard rumblings and we're not aware of any rumblings about what was happening with any particular team. I started on the job in November of 2018 and at the general manager meetings this was a topic the importance of modifying the rules for you know technology was something that was talked about and the commissioner made it clear that that using technology for for in-game science dealing was not to be not to be tolerated you know what happened or what rumblings I certainly had no factual basis for anything until until this process played itself out. Carlos Beltran had this to say to Marley Rivera of ESPN today over like 20 years in the game I've always taken pride in being a leader and doing things the right way and in this situation I failed as a veteran player on the team I should have recognized the severity of the issue and truly regret the actions that were taken I am a man of faith and integrity and what took place did not demonstrate those characteristics that are so very important to me and my family I'm very sorry it's not who I am as a father a husband a teammate and as an educator the Mets organization and I mutually agreed to part ways moving forward for the greater good with no further distractions I hope that at some point in time I'll have the opportunity to return to this game that I love so much. All right so let's go back to the timeline when he was interviewed for the job does a question come up okay you buy that maybe it didn't come up at that time but then right in the wake of this in the commissioner's statement Monday Jack wouldn't have made sense for somebody to circle back and say how are you involved what happened and then what decision do we make and how do we go the right way it's mind-boggling that it wasn't asked Bob and I would say in either circumstance when you are interviewing somebody for that position and I'm saying when you're interviewing him this was one of his skills one of the things that he did well with stealing signs as a player so I would think that would come up in conversation as the Mets were interviewing him because it's a complimentary thing we want to know how to make our players better then once the news breaks with the athletic story you absolutely have to ask one of your employees what was your role on this I listened to that conference call in Brody Van Wagon the GM kept saying well we were deferring to MLB he's your employee you are paying him to run your franchise he's a first-year manager you absolutely have to ask that question I'm shocked that it never was asked yeah and for me it's when the story came out in the athletic right Ken Rosenthal broke that story that at that point if you're the GM of the New York Mets you have to go to your manager and say I need to know what happened here because we're going to try to get out ahead of this you don't let it go for weeks and then react here this week and I guess you can even say not react this week right it was three days where they did not make any sort of a comment they had an embarrassing morning with the Mike Piazza way down in Port St. Lucie it just was a situation was not handled the right way but the fact that you don't go to Carlos Beltran and say I need to know what happened here so I have all the information as a general manager of this team I need to know what happened can't rewind the hands of time but let's just say that Beltran statement Jack came out on Monday or Tuesday what's the worst case scenario that could have happened for the Mets I think it's a distraction and we can all guess on how long that distraction last but I absolutely think that we're talking about a different situation here now that was a very contrite statement and I'll go you one further Bob forget the statement get in front of a microphone get in front of a video camera and say it with contrition say it apologetically and I think everything could have changed in this spot but the longer the Mets delayed the more I thought Beltran was gone when this first happened I thought he might skate on this he was mentioned in the report and Manfred by the way put him in there for a reason no other player was mentioned I thought there was a chance that he would survive the longer it lasted I thought the Mets were almost setting him up to fail yeah I think that they could have gotten ahead of this story but then the question becomes could he lead a group of 26 players and staff in that clubhouse when you get to spring training and then get to the regular season and I think he could have I think he could have been very honest like he was with the statement today and I think he could have done the same thing with his players that first meeting in spring training and say listen this is what happened I made some mistakes we're not going to let that help happen here I can help you guys out on the field become better baseball players better major leagueers and I can teach you how to win the right way so I think there was still a chance for him to manage his team and I think be a successful major league manager