They Didn't Give Willie a Chance

You’re not supposed to take being laid off personally, but I cannot sit back and quietly accept the Mets firing Willie Randolph, a childhood hero that finally got a big chance to manage the New York Mets three years ago and was undeservingly kicked to the curb at 3 a.m. this morning.

Managing a major league baseball team is probably the toughest job in sports. The expectations are enormous and I can think of two managers in my life (Tommy Lasorda and Joe Torre) that got to leave on their own terms. Everyone else gets fired. But managers are not miracle workers, and they’re not responsible for the players’ mistakes on the ball field. Is it Willie’s fault that former ace closer Billy Wagner blew three straight saves? Or that Carlos Delgado is batting .242 while making $16 million a year? Or that Pedro Martinez has been on a seemingly permanent DL and has started just four games this year with only 12 strikeouts?

There are a very small number of managers whose very presence can electrify a team – Jim Leyland is one. But ask Casey Stengel if the Mets teams he managed were the same as the Yankee teams. In baseball, it is largely the General Manager who is charged with acquiring and moving the right players to create a championship. And while Willie did take the Mets to within one out of the pennant in 2006, a real sports fan cannot hold him entirely responsible for the collapse at the end of 2007 and certainly not for the dreadful underachievers like Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran this year. And the bullpen is beyond putrid.

The Mets currently have the second highest payroll in baseball at $137.4 million, but as Washington owner Daniel Snyder and the Steinbrenners have yet to learn, money does not automatically buy you a championship. When the season started, the Mets had the players but I didn’t believe they had the right team. But Willie did not assemble this bunch of slackers. GM Omar Minaya did, but Minaya is still employed because he works well with the Met owners. Remind you of anyone else?

Even if you disagree and think Willie Randolph deserved to be fired, the handling of the situation was absolutely disgraceful and unprofessional. The Mets were on the road and had won two in a row, yet the brass flew in to fire Willie and then sent out a press release in the middle of the night, as if they thought nobody would notice. As of today they have yet to offer a press conference or additional reasons for their actions.

I hope Willie perseveres. He certainly made some mistakes, but he remains a hero and a class act. Here’s hoping he manages again one day with the GM he deserves.