First, let’s point out the obvious: Omar Minaya botched yesterday’s press conference badly. He tried to make it look like reporter Adam Rubin was lobbying for a job with the Mets, and that he had inquired about one. By all accounts, that never happened. And Minaya will pay – he’ll be the one fired at season’s end (unless Daniel Murphy saves the day!). Now, onto the other saga: Should Rubin have been asking – he confirmed this, as did team owner Jeff Wilpon – anyone in the organization for career advice?

Voting no: SI’s Jon Heyman (on NY radio earlier today). Voting “inappropriate”: Tom Jolly, sports editor of the NY Times.

Here are the potential pitfalls of Rubin’s line of questioning: Management might think that by helping out the reporter – be it with advice, connections, whatever – they’ll get favorable coverage in return. A better, less controversial move for the NYDN’s Adam Rubin might have been to seek out someone in the front office a team not in the NL East. Of course, he wouldn’t have just been able to call up, say, the Texas Rangers front office folks and attempt to get career advice.

So, as others have pointed out, spending day after day after day in and around the ballpark for six or seven months, well, it is logical that non-work topics are going to bubble up. Daily interaction is eventually going to lead to discussions about goals, dreams, the future … and that could be the pickle Rubin found himself in. Wouldn’t surprise us if the paper had him off the beat for a week while the story cooled down.