Mets fire Willie Randolph

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/2008/06/16/2008-06-16_mets_fire_willie_randolph.html

http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/news/press_releases/press_release.jsp?ymd=20080617&content_id=2945352&vkey=pr_nym&fext=.jsp&c_id=nym

The Willie Watch finally comes to an end as Randolph, along with pitching coach Rick Peterson and 1st base coach Tom Nieto were fired after the Mets 9-6 victory over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

I'm just glad it's over with. I think it was far better that they did it on the road, instead of in front of 8,000 reporters in NY. Willie can now enjoy a little vacation time, maybe go to Disneyland, breathe easier.

If this had been done to him while in NY, he wouldn't have been able to go anywhere in the tri-state area and enjoy himself. The man is on a paid vacation for the next year and a half. What better way to begin it than in sunny Southern California?

I don't KNOW this for sure, but my best guess is that Omar Minaya told him how this would go down in the meeting on Sunday night. This decision had already been made, and I'd like to believe they tried to have it go down as "humanely" as possible privately, despite growing dissatisfaction with Mets management for how they've handled this publicly.

Considering the names involved in the plan have been leaked for a while now, and the "unnamed sources" turned out to be 100% correct, this was a plan that HAD to have been put into motion over the weekend, if not earlier.

In many ways, because of the way the situation was handled over the last couple of days, Willie Randolph kinda became a sympathetic babyface figure with management taking the heat for letting him twist in the wind, whether he actually was or not.

It was interesting hearing the Angels broadcasters on both TV and radio weigh in on the Willie Randolph controversy (this was pre-firing) and how he was getting a bad rap, wasn't a bad manager by any stretch of the imagination, and was being treated unfairly by the fans at Shea along with the "what have you done for me lately" attitude of the NY media.

As for Rick Peterson, the world's most overrated pitching guru who in my opinion, was the PRIMARY culprit, though there were many, of the 2007 collapse. It was time for "the jacket" to sell his line of bullshit elsewhere. Maybe he can still help fix Victor Zambrano's mechanics. Or perhaps, BE his mechanic.