Willie Randolph and most of his staff was fired-- with a brief press release at 3:15 AM and Omar Minaya denying comment until at least this evening-- further underscoring the utter joke that has been the Mets franchise over the last couple of weeks.



ESPN

The sad part is that this was pre-meditated, and this was the best the Mets could come up with. This was their brilliant plan. God I'd hate to see what their off the cuff ideas are.

Reyes and Wright to the Sox for Scenic, Lugo and Masterson?
I hope they are that off the cuff!

Wow, what a dick move. There wasn't any other way they could handle this?

Well played......reason number 72 to root against the Mets.

So did the front office slip the press release under Randolph's hotel room door, along with the bill for room service?

And USA Today.

This is just another example of how we waste oil in this country. Omar Minaya could have just fired Willie and his staff on Sunday and saved them the airplane flight out west and the flight home. Not to mention the humiliation.

I saw Omar doing some control damage on a Mets' telecast last week. He was telling the announcers that everyone in the media should be rooting for the Mets to do good. Hard to believe a man can rise to general manager of a pro sports team in NYC and not understand the role of the media.

I believe that's why he broke the news at 3 in the morning. Screw the back pages of the Daily News and Post. They had already finished printing their final editions.

Well, the plane was going to LAX or John Wayne anyway, but I get your point. Goes to show you how tenuous a manager's job is though. If Scioscia, or Francona, or (insert who you think is a good manager) had had the Mets last year and this, how different would it have been? In other words, what did Willie do, or not do?

Willie's team blew a 7-game lead in September last year and Omar had to find a scapegoat, otherwise the Wilpons might have blamed Omar for putting together a disparate blend of personalities that lacks the fire to compete under pressure.

I was just kidding about the wasted airline fuel. It's going to waste no matter what the Mets do with their traveling party list for road trips.

The dirty guy in all this is former White Sox player Tony Bernazard, who was hired as Omar's assistant and became the middle man in dealings with Latin players in the clubhouse. Willie felt Tony's presence in the clubhouse before and after games was undercutting his authority. Guys like Reyes could go to Tony and complain about Willie's tough rules -- like running hard to first base all the time -- and Tony would take their complaints to Omar. That feud had been festering for the past year, even since Willie benched Jose last summer for not hustling.

Yeah, I know you were kidding about the fuel. I was too. I am on the fence though about how much difference an MLB manager makes. Football is a more complex game with the complex offenses and even defenses, so I think a coach there can make a big difference. Basketball, with its rotations, is also more complicated. But baseball, you send 9 guys out there and other than when do you steal or replace the pitcher, what critical decisions are there? I think, like we hear all the time now, that the clubhouse managing is the big difference maker. So, Willie couldn't handle it but Torre could, Francona and Scioscia can?

Tough rules, like running hard to first, now that is weird. Sparky Anderson and Earl Weaver are rolling over on their couches. Maybe Omar set Willie up to fail with that clubhouse plant, but Willie couldn't rise above this guy? Maybe would make a good movie, managing in NYC, starring Danny Aiello and Cuba Gooding Jr.

If the GM doesn't back the manager, someone's in trouble. Omar's been tap-dancing around Willie's status ever since the end of last season. On a parallel note, I thought it was significant last October that Cashman did not come running to back Torre the way he had the three previous offseasons.

Deep down, I think the Mets have a problem in the clubhouse that nobody wants to talk about today because it's politically incorrect. The Latin players do not interract very well with their teammates or the media. Billy Wagner and David Wright have been left to deal with the media after every game while the Latinos hide behind their language barrier. Wagner finally snapped a couple of weeks ago and came off looking like a bad guy because he told some teammates to act like they cared. Maybe Pedro can bridge the gap now that he's back in the clubhouse.

The media have tried to make this a leadership (or lack of) issue. And they're probably right. Look at Boston's clubhouse and how the Red Sox have intermingled their U.S., Latino and Far East players. It can be done if players talk to one another. The Yankees integrated Matsui and Wang into their clubhouse without too many problems. Both of those guys learned enough English to joke around with their teammates.

I didn't see him enforcing that one too often.

I doubt that this will "turn the Mets around".

Stupid, actually... Randolph was fine.

We'll see, but, IMHO, stupid and reactionary.

I think for the most part baseball managers don't effect a team as much as most people think. A move here or there will backfire or go well but overall I don't think a manager has much effect on a team during the regular season. In the postseason it can make a difference because its a small sample size but over the course of a season I don't see much influence.

Theres a reason why most managers make less than most players in baseball while NFL coaches make big bucks. I could coach the Red Sox to 90+ wins, and so could most on this board. The biggest thing for MLB managers IMO is off the field stuff like dealing with the press which is huge in NY and Boston.

off-topic, but it's the Mets, so....

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3459528

"...After the second strike, Beltran started talking to Runge, who took off his mask and continued the dialogue before he brushed dirt off home plate. Manuel then came out and started arguing with Runge. The umpire appeared to bump into the manager before throwing him out the game...."

So, that'll be an automatic suspension for the ump, right?