I Don’t Believe It
I’m a pretty loyal Mets fan. It screws up my schedule to stay up past midnight, but when there’s a West Coast night game, I usually allow my schedule to be screwed up a little. I can’t always last the whole game, but I like to stay up for a big chunk of it. The house is quiet. Everyone’s asleep. There’s a weird sense I have that I am keeping Gary and Ron company. Is it my imagination or is there a kind of late-night intimacy to their West Coast broadcasts, as if they know they’re talking to people who are watching the game all by themselves, with the volume down, in quiet houses?
I made it through most of last night’s game. I decided to pack it in after Heilman got out of the seventh. The game was still close, but I was tired and I had a sense, if you know what I mean, that I had put in my watching of the game.
So I wake up and I’m having breakfast and my wife Sheila, on her way out of the house for a yoga class, tells me that the Mets have fired Willie Randolph. That can’t be, I think. I was up until 1 am and they hadn’t fired Randolph. What were they going to do, fire him in the early morning hours so that nobody would notice?
To show me that she hadn’t misunderstood what she heard, Sheila went and turned on SNY and said that “yes,” they had fired him (there must have been something on the banner at the bottom of the screen). I finished my breakfast and went into the study and turned on the computer. They did fire him. At 3:15 in the morning, Eastern Daylight Savings Time.
What in God’s name were they thinking? Is there a universe in which this makes any sense? If so, I don’t want to go there. It’s one thing for the Mets to be underachievers. I can’t handle a “what could be worse?” joke.
The dynamics of this situation were fairly simple. Anyone could have figured them out. Mets fans were divided between those who wanted Willie to go, and those who would have liked for him to stay but had fully accepted that he was on his way out. I was in the latter group. I did not think that Willie Randolph was the main or even a particularly significant reason for the team’s mediocre performance over the past year. But I understood that when baseball fate bends in a certain way, the traditional remedy is human sacrifice.
I was ready for the sacrifice. Like most Mets fans, I felt for this decent, skilled, strong, and solid man. But firing the manager when a talented team is underperforming is not a judgement. It is a tactic. It is pushing the reset button, going out and coming back in. It is a blind expunging of the whatever, since you can’t surgically remove exactly what you know to be wrong. I was looking forward to a purely psychological sense of renewal, for the players and the fans. There would be blood. But the blood would do some useful work.
Now look at what they’ve done. They’ve made a mess of it. The story is not that Randolph was finally fired. It is that Randolph was fired at 3:15 am New York time. The story is that after four encouraging games what was probably but not necessarily inevitable was done in the middle of the night way the hell out in Anaheim. This doesn’t feel like the dignified, considered removal of a fine man willing to offer himself up for the greater good. It feels like a rubout. It feels like Willie was taken for a ride at 3 AM, bumped off, and thrown in the Pacific.
This sucks, not just because Willie deserved better but because the Mets and their fans deserved a sacrifice that would have felt good so that they could start feeling good again. You can’t feel good about something that has been so botched. It makes you feel as if they really don’t know what they’re doing and we’re all in more trouble than we realized. When I look at the schedule, I have a sneaking suspicion that they were understandably afraid of Anaheim, but thought that they could get a decent streak going against Colorado and Seattle. I wonder if they wanted to wait until Santana’s start to increase the odds of a good run after the firing. Please don’t tell me that they did this in the early morning hours because they thought it would attract less attention.
I feel sick right now. A decent man has been treated badly and an opportunity has been lost. I suppose we can afford this rudeness to a decent man. We can’t afford to lose many more opportunities.
June 17th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
I wanted Willie to go, but this is atrocious. The Wilpons are fast becoming the Dolans of MLB. Remember when they fired/didn’t fire Art Howe the last two weeks of the 2004 season? And even the hiring of Minaya — whom Billy Beane basically described in “Moneyball” as a moron — is looking more and more like a mistake.
June 17th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Hi Dana, sad topic, but another extremely well-written post.
Something had to be done, and we may not have all the information (when was he told, when exactly did this all transpire, the press release came two hours after the game, but when was he told, etc).
So many questions — some may not seem relevant in a few days or weeks.
I expect the press/media will have a field day with this. But I think the underlying reminder over the next 24-48 hours is: the media’s job is to sell ads (whether they are newspaper ads or TV commercials). They will do what is necessary to attract eyeballs.
The manager’s job is to win ballgames, and ultimately, that was not happening.
Could have been better handled. I like the Tessio comparison.
Keep writing!
Tom
June 17th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Willie was not to blame for the collapse or for the poor start to 2008. Frankly, the collapse and the poor start are a result of old guys in the rotation or old guys signed to contracts at player positions. However, I understood that something had to change and in baseball this means the manager. But this….this was just stupid and cruel. The Mets just won 3 out of 4. The team was playing fairly well despite being under ridiculous pressure that was placed on them by a GM and ownership that would not make a decision….idiots! I viewed the trip out west as a welcome departure from the inferno that was burning out of control in Queens. I thought maybe this team could just play baseball and not have to answer all the stupid questions for once. Well, thanks Omar. We now have a team that will have to answer countless questions about the unseemly way that you discarded good ole Willie. I am just sick to my stomach as a Met fan. I have been raising my sons to be Met fans, but at times like this I just know they will have a better life as a fan if they root for the Yankees(no way) or the Sox(I could live with that). So damn sick am I. This was the team that was supposed to be the dynasty. Remember how we all felt in 2006? Omar and Willie were both considered geniuses at the time. God damn Sports Illustrated and that f-ing cover with Omar and the Mets.
Well, there is another game tonight and a great match up of Lackey vs Santana. That is the beauty of baseball, there is always a game. Time to move on folks and root for some W’s.
June 17th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
When single game tickets went on sale I carefully(frantically to the patiently impatient ticket operator) chose the dates I could afford to supplement My Seven -Pack . I was frantic due to my belief that everthing would be selling out for this the final season at Shea and walk ups would certainly be few and far between . Shea farewell plus a very good team surely the place will be packed every night. One ear to the phone as I called out to my wife” April 16 Value date only 5 bucks … Check… give me two /June 14 Shea replica gotta have it! gimme two upper reserved… Wait june15 dash date I promised my7 yearold niece i’d take her to her first game this year gimme four we’ll all go a June Sunday should be perfect”….. Well I shoulda known the best laid plans of Mets and MEN ETC. Not such a great season (so far) .Huge crowds? Only on the scoreboard anouncements … My seats red and broken same as last year Oh No same as last year!- it can’t be- this is the last year at Shea .
So game by game inning after inning excruciating loss after excruciating loss I struggled for a reason to believe. Slogging through the ankle deep parking lot sans my replica (I hit traffic and was 25,000 fans too late to the rainout) I typically planned in my head how best to use my rain checks and was thrilled and stunned to learn that i was in possession of tix to a single admission double dip.
Sunday morning we set out in two vehicles ;my wife prepared to leave when the well -being of the baby and the patience of th 7 year old would dictate. Daddy and please God , 17 year old daughter would be left to enjoy the last true double header and perhaps another attempt to turn this ship around. Where was the ship last night when i needed it)?
To my Father’s Day Joy all held up and the warm and crowded first game gave way to an intimate ,cool and pleasant upper deck evening. The stock piles of home brought food , the good weather and the kindness of my familyresulted in my happily basking in an almost perfect Met father’s scene. When the comeback attempts were mounted in game one ,I was admonished by 17 year old not to act as i did during the Ten Run Eigth and Five run ninth of her youth -we have a baby with us an it’s sooo embarrassing the way you carry on. Between games there were photo shoots at the Agee Circle and right field rail with the scary expensivefuture over our shoulders and the comforting old apple way down below. Late in the second game I looked many rows behind and saw my wife baby in her lap with my niece in the last row of the nearly empty upper deck . I imagined a smile on the text messaging teens face beside me as I recalled many wonderful afternoons spent in that area. The baby waved her arms and let out her “cheers” and the niece ran down the steps to inform me of the nice breeze and awesome view up there!
Happy Daddy, job well done daughter #one games zillion and 1 and zillion and two ; daughter #two games 3 and 4 ; niece games one and two-to be recounted over photographs years from now as an old style double header at a long gone ballpark.
Well , the comeback failed , but they played real hard and almost notched another near miracle in my attendance belt. They salvaged game two and Pedro was back! I found myself both believing and moving firmly towards Willie’s corner as he fought through this snake bit-uncany adversity. Willie finally was a realMet in my eyes as he strode through the boos toward the Robinson Can who? clutch hit. It got better as he lightened up at the post game conferences and anounced his intention to win this thing. Ya Gotta Believe after all .
Alone like you in the quiet of the too late west coast night I dodged the predictable ruination of the Vlad grand Slam that mercifully was not to be. I slept in the knowledge that my “new” manger had done the same.
6:37 Awoke to the bore Carton Gleefully anouncing Willie’s demise.
What kind of underhanded dirty business crap have I gotten my kids into?
June 17th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Dana,
I think everyone agrees that the Mets handled this firing as badly as they could have, but as someone who watches almost every game I can’t disagree with the decision to fire Willy. This team has played sloppy uninspired ball for almost a year now and Willy’s (& Peterson) handling of the pitching staff has been abysmal. Pulling 25 year old pitchers in the 5th inning because they have thrown 100 pitches has destroyed the bullpen. Never hitting and running, never using the squeeze play…ever. I know Willy is a very nice man, but he probably should have been canned after last seasons collapse. He was given another chance. I know the injuries have been tough, but 34-35 is not where this team should be. The Manager always goes first!
June 17th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
What am I to do, Dana? I feel totally helpless against this. I love baseball and I love the Mets. But there have been times in my life when baseball-and yes, the Mets– have been so thoroughly inhumane. I have turned my back on baseball, and on the Mets, at times when they got inhumane. This is franly the worst I have seen. But nothing replaces baseball and the Mets in my life. I don’t only want the Mets to be better than this in terns of winning– I so much want and expect them to be better than this in terms of how they treat people.
June 18th, 2008 at 1:22 am
I too am sickened by how the Wilpons handled this. They actually found a way to MAXIMIZE the upheaval of this difficult time. But I have to say, that I am not sorry they fired Willie. I think he is a really great man and I hope he finds a great place to land, but he is simply not the right man to manage this team. That quiet, reserved, don’t-let-them see-you-sweat-because-you’re-too-much-of-a-professional shtick is just not what the Mets are. It is - dare I say, too Yankee-like. This really hit home for me on Saturday night, as I sat in Shea (thankfully under an overhang) for two hours watching the rain. There was no way I was going to miss the game - that replica was mine g*ddammit! (Chris: sorry you missed it - it’s beeootiful!!). As we sat there watching a wonderful video on Diamondvision about the scrappy ‘86 Mets, the Texas Rangers came out first to sign balls for a bunch of kids. They stood outside the dugout in what was then a little rain and caught balls from the fans and signed them. Later, after the deluge, they came out and playfully slid on the tarp al a Robin Ventura to the utter delight of the crowd. They were silly, goofy and just trying to make the fans who sat there for hours in the rain happy. They didn’t worry about whether they looked unprofessional or might get hurt. They were what we want and expect our Mets to be. The crowd was cheering on the Texas Rangers - a team we barely know. At no point during the evening - at no point whatsoever - did we see a single Met. It was sad. Didn’t they know we were waiting for them? why did they push us to cheer the Texas Rangers? I want my Mets back. I want Robin Ventura in a Mike Piazza mustache. I want those scrappy ‘86 guys everyone hated. I’m sorry but I think a part of why we are not succeeding is the reserved coolness that Willie projects. I’m not sure Manuel will be better, but I want us to go back to being scrappy rebels.
June 18th, 2008 at 2:10 am
Subie, although I agree that Willie should be gone but that the Wilpons did it all wrong (isn’t it funny that no one takes Omar at his word that it was his decision alone?), I do have to point out that the two best managers in Mets history, Gil Hodges and Davey Johnson, were definitely of the reserved, no visible sweat school. I don’t think that was the problem with Willie’s tenure. And I don’t think that style of managing is a Yankee style (Billy Martin, Casey Stengel, etc.). It is a Torre style and that may be where Willie saw how effective it can be. The thing is that Hodges and Johnson ran teams that had plenty of natural leadership. This isn’t true of the current team. I like what I’ve seen today of Jerry Manuel. It will be interesting, at least, to see how he fares.
June 18th, 2008 at 2:19 am
Pete and others, It really is strange that the firing comes as the team is beginning to show signs of being on the way back, with the offense and starting pitching improving dramatically this month. If it hadn’t been for an almost freakish slump on the part of the entire bullpen (for which it is hard, I think, to blame Willie), the Mets would have won almost every single game this month. But the uncertainty was driving everyone nuts.
June 18th, 2008 at 2:29 am
Chris, that was a really cool post, filled with the lyricism of Shea and the lyricism of fatherhood. I wish I could tell you that you weren’t getting your kids involved in a dirty business. You’ve already realized that you’re involving them in something beautiful.
Which is what you were writing about, Theresa. How can something we love so much be so awful, so putrid with greed and inhumanity? Look, what can I say? Baseball has the strengths and failings of so much in our culture. I’m not saying that we need to accept it. But we do. Hell, I know. I rooted for the M. Donald Grant Mets. To this day I don’t know how or why I did that. And to this day I don’t really regret it.
June 18th, 2008 at 4:47 am
I went to bed happy with the win, and woke up to my son(Yankee fan) telling me to look at the breaking news on the computer, that Willie Randolph has been fired. I was not surprised at the firing itself, but at the fact it was done right after a nice win, in CA.
I have mixed feelings about Randolph’s firing. I truly like the man, and think he has done the best he could with a team that has been inconsistent, old, and plagued with injuries. However, I can see why the Wilpons felt a change was due. I think Jerry Manuel was a good choice for interim manager, and what I have seen of him tonight, I think he is little more no nonsense than Willie. Whether this will bode well for the Mets remains to be seen. As I am writing this, Santana did not have a good night and they are losing badly. As ever, I am hopeful and optimistic they can turn this season around and be the team they were supposed to be. (Dana is an inspiration in that department.)
I think that the blame for this team’s play also rests with Omar Minaya, and if at the end of the season things have not really improved, the next firing should be the general manager.
I have my own list of best to worst Mets managers, which is strictly my opinion, judged not on straight wins and losses and championships, but handling of the team and chemistry.
Best Managers:
Gil Hodges
Davey Johnson
Bobby Valentine
Willie Randolph
Yogi Berra
Worst Managers:
Art Howe
George Bamberger
Dallas Green
Joe Torre (I like Joe too, but unfortunately his skills as a good manager took 20 years to develop)
Bud Harrelson (I have met Buddy and he is a great person, but was not a good manager)
I wish Jerry Manuel lots of luck in his new job, and want to thank Willie for making the Mets respectable again and wish him well in any future endeavors.
June 18th, 2008 at 9:35 am
Willie Randolph is a good baseball manager, a man with intelligence and heart. Rick Peterson is an extraordinary pitching coach. They should have been allowed to finish this season. Are they underperforming or are the players? Are they less skilled now than they were two years ago? Or are the Mets much less talented? Actually I don’t even think the Mets have underachieved. Given how awful the bullpen is, given they’ve had to start retreads like Figueroa and Vargas, given they have NO bench, and mediocre defense, considering all of their injuries, I think it’s remarkable that they are close to .500. Look around baseball at teams like the Cubs, Phillies, Diamondbacks, etc. Indeed, wouldn’t you trade the Mets 25 man roster for over a dozen teams?
From what I’ve been reading (and I trust people like Joel Sherman and William Rhoden on this) the Mets are a wayward, dysfunctional organization. Minaya’s press conference was defensive and sad.
The games go on. But the Mets have disgraced themselves.
I know a dysfunctional organization when I see one. I always suspected this about the Mets ownership but not knowing the people involved I assumed the best. But based on their actions here I assume the worst. And that is really too bad.
For me, watching Randolph and Peterson leave was worse than the Mets losing the seventh game to the Cardinals. You could see how much they care and how much they hurt and they deserved a chance to finish what they started despite the awful hand they were dealt and the apparent dissension that was sown by their bosses.
June 18th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
I think, having had a whole day to think about it, that what I would have done was tell Willie that the situation would be evaluated at the All-Star Break and that he certainly had his job until then. There were signs that this team was coming around. I agree with Mitch T that the team itself is filled with holes. But I do think that if a few things break right, they have enough to get them the division. I do think that at the end of this season, there has to be a total re-thinking of the team’s philosophy. We are still in the Phillips era, trying to get it done now by signing old and questionable guys to longer contracts than anyone else is stupid enough to give them. I want youth and energy and I can live with the uncertainty, because no management philosophy is going to save you from uncertainty anyway.