Daily Archives: October 1, 2007
David Wright, speaking about his manager, Willie Randolph, following yesterday’s season-ending loss…
“He’s a great manager. I’ll go to war with Willie any day. He’s not in here jumping up and down and hollering when we win and he’s not throwing guys under the bus when we lose. It’s not his fault. It’s the 37, 38 guys in this room who didn’t do their jobs.”
Randolph, while talking to reporters after the game…
“I’m the manager of the team. I’m a big boy. I take full responsibility. I have no problem with that…I’m here to win. That’s what it’s all about for me. I’m not here to impress anyone, money is not an issue for me…I’m here to teach these guys how to play winning baseball. When I don’t do that, they’re going to get rid of me, obviously. So, I don’t have any qualms, any worries about stuff like that…
“I grew up in this town. I know how things work. I know how things play. I accept that totally, and I’m fully accountable for what I do on this job.”
…as i wrote after yesterday’s game, while i respect willie’s confidence and believe it is ultimately a good thing, i suspect it may also have helped to create a sense of entitlement that morphed in to a sense of apathy, which led to the team’s uninspired play at the end of the season…ultimately, however, i mostly fault the players, who are professionals, and yet who actually went on record as acknowledging their malaise, like Carlos Delgado, who in early September told reporters, “We’ve got so much talent, I think sometimes we get bored.”…there’s nothing worse than wasted talent unfortunately, and a price will be paid for this disappointment, but it should not be randolph’s job…
…it’s strange…i have read nearly every article, listened to every radio and tv personality, be it local or national, and over the last few days i have talked with former players, as well people who work with the team, who are close to the team, who work in baseball, and who cover the team, and nearly every person ultimately feels willie should not be fired…yet, the comments section at MetsBlog is flooded with people who feel he should go…i mean, even the two mid-day hosts on WFAN, who are notorious for being overly emotional, even they feel randolph should stay…yet, so many fans disagree…i have been writing MetsBlog for just under four years, and i do not ever recall such a disconnect between fans and ‘insiders’…so, one side is either very right, or very wrong…
…for me, it comes down to one thing…as i see it, willie is a winner, he has a winner’s mentality, he works hard, believes in his players, and has only one care in the world, which is to win…frankly, that’s the attitude i want leading this team, and it is why most people believe he should stay…the thing is, he clearly lost a bunch of his players, as they stopped hustling and got complacent as the season dripped on…so, the question is, do the Mets bring in a new manager, who will hopefully be as dedicated as willie, while leaving these bad-habit players in place, or do they keep willie and his work ethic, but surround him with guys, like wright and Luis Castillo, who not only buy in to his style, but actually live it out on the field every single game, regardless of the standings…they can no longer succeed with both…they have squandered too much opportunity to continue…it’s totally unrealistic to believe any player who gave up on willie this season, will suddenly take him serious again next season…
…i choose willie, mostly because i believe in him, but also if for no other reason than i don’t see a more suitable option available…i mean, every team’s fans complain about their manager’s lack of smarts…i went back to read a few blog posts from teams who suffered similar disasters in year’s past, and you could literally cut and paste the current Mets fans complaints on to their fans complaints…and vice-a-versa…hell, there were Yankees fans who wanted to fire Joe Torre, who won them four rings, but whose team stunk to start the year, but now he’s back to being a genius since they’re in the post-season…it’s the nature of the beast, i think…for every fan who wants Lou Pinella, there is a team who fired him, it seems…again, nature of the beast…
…that being said, for willie to continue on as manager he has got to have total control of that locker room…the team’s general manager, and assistant general managers cannot be milling around in private huddles with willie’s players and opponents before a game…also, willie has earned the right to structure his own catching staff, and he has to be able to work with his trainers and coaches in making the final decision about who plays where and when…it cannot come from above him, otherwise the very reason he is remaining on board, that is to say his leadership, is totally undermined…if i am a player on the team and i get along with omar, and i know omar is making all the final decisions, then why should i listen to willie, instead i’ll just liken to omar…it’s just not right…and don’t get me wrong, i am not sure this is an ego thing for omar, etc, it may be strategic, or a way to protect willie…but, he’s a big-league manager now…he’s earned the right…plus, if omar gives up a bit of control, allowing his manager to assert some additional authority, i believe it will go a long way from keeping next year’s players from quitting on him because they’ll know he is the boss…
…at the end of the day, willie has the right mindset and thick skin for this team and for this city…now, he needs a group of players and his own coaches who share the same qualities…in my opinion, it would be wise to retain willie, but to be successful the Mets must give him more power, while building this team beneath him and around the leadership of David Wright…
Tagged Willie Randolph |…if you need to relive the last six months, and are eager to pin blame, or you just want to rush towards the future, read the following, as there is a lot to digest today if you’re interested…
In the Star-Ledger, the always-wise Dan Graziano considers how Omar Minaya can best rebuild the pitching staff.
The Observer continues it’s strong run of Mets coverage, with a letter to Fred Wilpon by Howard Megdal, a look at the future of Willie Randolph by John Koblin, and a thank you to the team’s fans by Josh Benson.
In Newsday, Ken Davidoff simply states, “the Mets just weren’t good enough.”
Meanwhile, in the Daily News, John Harper is overwhelmed with the level blame that must be passed around Shea Stadium, though he fires mostly at Minaya.
Speaking of blame, in the New York Times, 
Michael S. Schmidt accuses the team of jinxing itself by building auxiliary seating boxes for the post-season, which they will never get a chance to use.
Also, in the New York Times, Jack Curry paints Willie Randolph as a depressed man, writing…
“Two Mets who witnessed Randolph’s five-minute speech said his eyes became moist and his voice weakened when he talked about what the team had destroyed by playing listlessly for two and a half weeks.”
Lastly, for a spin through opinion in the Mets blogosphere, check out the Global NY Mets Fan Blog, Sidd’s Speechless at HotFoot, Yes, Joe, It’s Toasted, Metsradamus, Faith and Fear, BMF, MiracleMets.net, which is back online following a short hiatus.
In today’s edition of New York Magazine, Chris Smith writes about his day following around Billy Wagner, who, according to Smith, is “honorable, defiant, and quite possibly doomed.”
Wagner, as quoted by Smith…
“Our pitching coach [Rick Peterson] has no experience talking to a bullpen. He can help you mechanically, but he can’t tell you the emotions. He has no idea what it feels like. And neither does Willie [Randolph]. They’re not a lot of help, put it that way.”
…people are using this quote to attack wagner, but i don’t understand why…i’m not sure what is wrong with it…, he’s essentially saying that neither willie nor rick understand what the pressure and is like in pitching every day from a bullpen in new york…and he’s right, they don’t…
…at any rate, in standard modern-media fashion, wagner forced himself to back-track from the comments, once learning that they would appear in the report…
Wagner, as quoted by in Newsday…
Tagged Poll |“I wasn’t trying to knock Willie or Rick because they’ve been great. As bad as we’ve played, they’ve been the most supportive coaches I’ve been around. No way was this a knock on Willie or Rick. I was referring to my experiences on the mound. It was not my intent to say those guys weren’t any help.”
Mets 3B David Wright, following yesterday’s season-ending loss to the Marlins…
“I obviously think this is one of the best teams in the National League, but that doesn’t matter right now. We’re going home. We’ll be watching the post-season
from TV…
“It doesn’t matter what players you have, or how good you are on paper, you still have to go out there, on the field, and do your job – and down the stretch we didn’t do that…I’ve said it a million times, that’s the beautiful thing about baseball, good and bad, is that, you can have a great team on paper, but you have to go out there and execute – and we didn’t execute. We had plenty of opportunities to wrap this thing up and win this division and we didn’t take advantage of that…There is no explainable reason why. It just happens. It happens to the best of teams, and it just happened at the wrong time for us this year…
“It’s painful. It hurts. At the same time, we did it to ourselves. It’s not like we didn’t see this coming and it just blind-sided us. We gradually let this thing slip away. So, shooting yourselves in the foot over and over again down the stretch…in all honestly, we didn’t deserve to make the playoffs. You know, you finish the biggest home stand of the year 1–6, that’s not good enough…we have nobody to blame but ourselves.”
…if there is one silver lining to the final stretch of the season, it is wright…there must be changes made to this team…and one of them must be that it is built in wright’s shadow…it’s time for him to be given the room to step up and take control…he wasn’t ready coming in to this season, but he is now, and that’s obvious…he has to be their leader in the press, among fans, publicly on the field and privately in the clubhouse…his attitude and performance, as well as honesty and recognition, throughout this entire season and ‘collapse’ has been admirable, inspired and professional, which are the exact sensibilities that will lead the rest of the club to success next season and beyond…it’s his team now, and the sooner the organization recognizes that the better…
In yesterday’s season-ending loss to the Marlins, Tom Glavine allowed seven runs to nine batters, and was removed after just one out in the first inning.
In his final four starts of the season, during which the Mets lost all four games, Glavine was 0–2 with a 9.50 ERA.
Glavine, talking to reporters after the loss…
“I’m not devastated. I’m disappointed, but devastation is for much greater things in life. I’m disappointed, obviously, in the way I wanted to pitch. I can’t say there is much more I would have done differently.”
…you have got to be kidding me, tom…this hurts, because i like glavine…always have…and i know he is a good guy…and while i agree with his general take, in that ‘devastation’ must be applied to things like death, dude, throw your fans a bone…seriously, we help pay your salary…i find this quote to be totally disrespectful of this team’s fans…i do…i don’t expect him to come out and cry about it, but at least let the public know you hurt a little…
…my guess is that he’s used to this, in some small way…i mean, think of all those great teams he was on with atlanta that never won a world series, when the whole world knew they should have…so, maybe he is callious…and he’s right, it’s just baseball…but, again, we, the fans, are devastated, whether he likes it or not, and so out of respect for those who supported him for five years, the least he could do is respect our pain…
In his five years with the Mets, Glavine is 61–56, including 47 no decisions, with a 3.96 ERA.
He started 164 of his possible 168 outings.
…it was decent stretch with the Mets, some good, some great, some bad, but mostly just good…the thing is, his relationship with the team’s fans had been awkward at best for years, decades actually, and so after this start, and these quotes, i suspect his days have got to be numbered here in shea…he was needed this season, if for no other reason that his leadership and experience, especially with regards to John Maine and Oliver Perez…but johnny and ollie are all grown up now, and with the team’s other experienced-leader, Pedro Martinez, returning next season, i think glavine’s time is up…
Tagged Tom Glavine |Willie Randolph, talking to reporters after yesterday’s season-
ending loss to the Marlins…
Tagged Collapse, Mets, Quotes, Willie Randolph | Newer posts →“This is a tough life lesson in baseball…The bottom line is that we spit away a big opportunity to win a division, and it’s going to be a tough winter to deal with that…It’s very tough right now, very emotional. I feel for my players right now, more than anything…It’s tough to put it in to words, and like I said, it’s gonna be a while before you get over something like this for me. Like I said, I feel mostly for my players right now…
“We thought we were gonna win and move on today and we didn’t, and everything just kind of comes down on you real quick. It’s a long tough season and we fought hard at times to get where we are right now and it’s just very stunning – no matter how many times you’ve been in this spot it’s still difficulty. But, you know, you just have to pick up and learn from the experience. I told my players that this is a life lesson in baseball and how to become champions and when you get to that road you have to seize it because you never know when it will come again. We’ll have to re-group this winter and come back out next year ready to be better…
“You move past it, man. I mean, it’s part of the experience in sports, and in life, and any team that worth their weight is gonna bounce back from something like this.”
