Green Is Manager of Change : Baseball: Leader of struggling Mets must help decide who can play and who must go, and help the ones who stay to grow.

In the wake of the great New York Met turnover, the role of the manager takes a big turn. Calling the hit-and-run is irrelevant except as a teaching tool, so Dallas Green’s job is more input than output.

Green is attitude manager and evaluation manager: help decide who can play and who must go, and help the ones who stay to grow. “I don’t want them to be part of the problem and not be able to grow the way I want them to grow,” Green said.

Part of the Mets’ problem has been players who had no stomach for the struggle. They lost sight of the fact that the real enemy was in the other dugout.

In his brief time as manager, Green has brought a number of young players into the mix. Perhaps it’s before their time, but Green has to guide them between the mixed experience of the veterans, who are part of the problem. “Obviously,” he said, “the older you get, the more time you have in the big leagues, the more involved you get in those politics.”

Does he want Tim Bogar, Dave Telgheder, Jeff Kent and Doug Saunders influenced by the dark air in the clubhouse or by what’s in the manager’s office? Players who’ve had their careers often accept losing too willingly. Green has to make it better. He appears to have had a positive influence on Bobby Bonilla.

After 38 years in baseball, who can blame Green for preferring time in the islands and on his farm to the around-the-calendar life of a baseball man. He is willing to stand in the line of fire and pull players with him, a quality that has been conspicuously absent at Shea Stadium.

Green talks about accountability. The way Anthony Young has been able to deal with the media during the pain of his 23-game losing streak is an indication of Young’s bearing. If he couldn’t handle it, Green would be a lot less likely to keep running Young out there.

He wants players to look in the mirror and judge themselves, instead of blaming their critics and feeling burdened by New York. “It gets frustrating for them when they don’t do their job, which is to play good baseball, but they have to learn to handle it professionally,” the manager said. Jeff Torborg’s way was to shield them from criticism and the effect was that players thought being here was the problem.

“Everybody thinks that going someplace else and running and hiding is the thing to do,” Green said. “I think you have to face the problem head-on, and I think you have to hit it right between the eyes.”

Green has learned that he still makes mistakes. More important, he thinks he has learned how to deal with those mistakes.

That’s the chef recognizing when he or she has tried something that didn’t work and knowing how to rescue the batter, or knowing when it’s better to throw it out. “The worst thing in this game is not making the first mistake,” Green said. “The worst mistake you can make is compounding the first mistake by doing the second mistake, which is keeping the first mistake. You got that?”

Perfectly clear. The operative expression is, throwing good money after bad. What does Vince Coleman have to do with making this team better? “It’s not my money,” Green said.

Does Eddie Murray’s glowering make for a comfortable atmosphere? Wouldn’t everybody be better off if he went to be a DH on an American League team in exchange for prospects? Isn’t the condition of the Mets’ farm system painfully clear when the San Diego Padres trade Gary Sheffield to the Marlins for an expansion team’s prospects? Could he have helped rebuild the Mets?

The team that evolved has little stomach for coming from behind or for breaking losing streaks. It has few full-grown players who will take a game into their own hands; it’s a long-time problem. “I like guys with heads and hearts; I like guys with bellies,” Green said. “What happened to those guys, I can’t answer to, nor do I intend to.”

They have to be developed. A defense has to be developed. That part was overlooked in favor of offense and pitching, which didn’t produce. Defense is the constant in any game. It gives you a chance to win. This team has little chance to win. You don’t ask what’s the score, you ask what score are they losing by.

Green says he sees some things he likes. He has to help those players develop. He was a pitcher who struggled to make the big leagues after ruining his arm; he was on the ’61 Philadelphia Phillies who lost 23 in a row, on the ’64 Phillies who had a lead of 6 1/2 games with 12 to play and didn’t win. “I’ve had all the frustrations they could ever think about,” he said. “I’ve been sent down, busted my butt to make it back and been sent down in the middle of the season. I’ve been successful and I’ve been a failure.”

He lets them know when he thinks they’re right and when they’re wrong. “I haven’t beat them over the head about losing yet,” he said. “I haven’t let things slip with baseball.”

He thought they could win more than they have during the transition from what was to what will be. That’s part of his evaluation process. One of his strengths as a manager, general manager and club president was as an evaluator.

“We’re going to try to finish out ’93 with our heads up. For ’94 I want to put together something that’s representative of winning, he said. “I have some information to go into the mix to make those decisions.”

Whether he and Joe McIlvaine can work together is a question. Green says he has no problem with it; he says he’s at an age where he can work with anybody. The owners say McIlvaine says he has no problem. That’s what they would say. If they can’t work together it will take a whole lot longer.