Classy Not Synonymous With New York Mets This Morning

Yeah, the rumors surrounding Willie Randolph and his job security with the Mets have been constant since pretty much the end of last season. So it shouldn't surprise anyone that it happened. But with his job seemingly being re-evaluated on a day to day basis, I was reasonably sure that after last night's victory over the Angels that Willie's job was safe when I put my head on the pillow and went to sleep.

But pulling the trigger on Randolph last night, at three in the morning on the east coast while pretty much everyone was asleep felt like a mob hit. And for the first time, I'm now reasonably convinced that Randolph's firing was sealed days if not weeks ago. I mean, it had to be ... it doesn't make sense that a manager's job rests on a game-by-game basis.
But if that's the case, then the fact that not only did the decision come at three in the morning, but one day after a trip to the west coast makes the Mets look like a cowardly organization. In fact, I'm watching SNY right now, and field reporter Kevin Burkhardt is telling us that the organization knew on Monday morning that the axe was going to come, but nobody else did. If that's the case, that's absolutely classless. Willie should have been fired when the first round of meetings had come to a head back by Memorial Day, when it probably would have had a real impact on the roster. Instead, he was made to twist in the wind for three weeks by management and ownership in a petty, classless way ... then given the axe after what is now proven to be a totally unnecessary six hour plane ride. And the players are now probably most likely more relieved than shocked, so the desired effect might be lost.

ESPN's Buster Olney is thinking along my lines on this one:

... the circus played out fully, without the elephants or the tigers but with plenty of clowns lurking in the shadows. Minaya and his assistant, Tony Bernazard, walked around the lobby of the team hotel Monday "like grim reapers," in the eyes of a staff member. And after weeks of leak-fed speculation and boardroom backstabbing and indecision, they did their bidding, fired manager Willie Randolph, pitching coach Rick Peterson and first-base coach Tom Nieto.

Even the writers of "The Sopranos" could not have invented a more recklessly handled hit. The process really started after last season's collapse, when Minaya -- who came to the Mets having been promised full autonomy and, for more than a year, has had all the power of a marionette -- first regressed into lawyer-speak. "Willie is the manager," Minaya said over and over, as if repeating the phrase would somehow give the crafted but flimsy words backbone and fool anyone into thinking that Randolph wasn't one really bad day away from being fired.

And while the target definitely shifts squarely on the back of GM Omar Minaya, nobody should forget the part that Mets ownership, CEO Fred Wilpon and his son Jeff, played in this soap opera ... which really didn't have to be a soap opera at all. But instead, as is the Mets way, they draw this out needlessly and culminate the "soap opera" by taking Willie out back and giving him the proverbial "two to the back of the head". Classless. And whether you think that Willie Randolph is the problem or not, and you can certainly make the case both ways, the manner in which this happened makes Randolph look like a sympathetic figure.