The Mets have fired manager Willie Randolph, pitching coach Rick Peterson and first base coach Tom Nieto, the team announced shortly after 3 a.m. Eastern time Tuesday.Bench coach Jerry Manuel has been named the team's interim manager, while Ken Oberkfell, Dan Warthen and Luis Aguayo will join the staff.
The announcement came despite the Mets' 9-6 victory against the Angels hours earlier, which lifted the team's record to 34-35. Randolph's tenure as the organization's 18th manager ends with a 302-253 record, the second-highest winning percentage in franchise history, trailing only Davey Johnson.
GM Omar Minaya, who let Randolph twist in the wind without a bona fide vote of confidence for the past month, will hold at press conference at the Angels' stadium at 5 p.m. EDT Tuesday. If the Mets continue to flounder, the scrutiny will undoubtedly shift to Minaya, who is signed through the 2009 season.Now don't misunderstand me, they're not a-holes because they fired Willie and his coaches, the team hasn't been winning or living up to expectations, and it's always the manager who gets the blame. This was inevitable. It's the way they fired him that really bothers me. You really gotta be a schmuck to send your manager and his staff to the west coast, allow them to manage a game, win the game, and then fire them 2 hours later.
I wonder whether it was Minaya, or Wilpon who orchestrated this, it very well could have been both, but either way the Mets and their fans should be embarrassed by the way this was handled.
Minaya better hope the Mets start winning, because he's the next one to go.
9 Comments:
M-E-T-S, suck, suck, suck!
Way to continue to act totally classless and clueless. The organization never got the memo on how to do things the right way.
Shame on you, Omar.
Jason you're absolutely right.They are clueless. Manuel will probably be a downgrade, I haven't seen him say a word as the bench coach all year. Willie is a good manager, if he was fired after last year, I would have wanted the Yanks to hire him as the manager. Bad timing. The Mets are immature and too old at the same time, on the field and in the front office. Thank God were Yankee fans. Hopefully when we play them next week they'll still be playing half asleep. Last month they played great against us, we have to win 3 out of 4 just to split the season series.
Adam, I have to agree with you that this was definitely handled poorly. My take is that it was a sharpened battle axe coming from the Wilpons, and that the decision had already been made at some point during the team flight over.
Either way, it was a decision that was inevitable. Should it have been put off until his next loss? That kind of thinking is poor as well.
If the guy clearly isn't the manager for the job (and I was never really a fan of his "managing", but I was pulling for him these last few weeks), then it makes sense to let him go. I just think it should have been done before the trip.
Wilpon was quoted and put the full blame on Minaya for the way Willie was fired.
Nice to know the Mets front office is a bigger disgrace than brainless Hank and his mouth.
Thank you for the update JMiller.
So Minaya is to blame.
BRING BACK BOBBY V!
Hahaha, if I were a Mets fan (luckily I'm not) I'd be very happy with Bobby V back. He did a lot with a team that really wasn't very good.
Bobby V is an idol in Japan.. the guy has a mural matte of himself on the wall in centerfield in Chiba Lotte... There's no WAY he's leaving Japan to come back to that mess of a franchise.
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