Quote: Willie on Collapse and 2008
Last night on SNY’s Mets Hot Stove, Willie Randolph had the following to say regarding…
…on getting over the ‘collapse,’ and how much it hurt…
“It took me a lot longer than I expected. It stung
really hard…I’ve been in baseball a long time, and experienced a lot of ups and downs, but this is one of the toughest pills I had to swallow…It was tough, man.”
…on what he would do differently, if he had to do it over again…
“We felt we were right where we wanted to be, most of the season. Then, obviously, we got in to a funk. I believe very much in the rhythm of a team, and guys who are hot and who are not. It was unbelievable. We dealt with a lot of injuries during the year, but we were able to rise above that. Then when we needed guys to step up, we had a tough situation with Jose – and I’m not blaming him, but he went in to a tough funk at the wrong time – and our bullpen kind of went down at the same time, where guys just weren’t getting the job done, and Delgado got hurt at a wrong time. These are not excuses, it’s just that we really felt going in to the final weeks that we were primed and ready to go in to the playoffs. But, you know, in this game, if you take for granted things that happened early in the season they’ll come back to haunt you – and this case is a perfect example of that.”
…him and his teammates living with the demons of this ‘collapse,’ and knowing, even if they’re winning in August of this coming season, that this sort of thing is possible and had happened to them once before…
“Well, I’ve been really encouraged by some of the conversations I’ve had with some of my players…I’ve talked with some of our main guys, and they all are really looking forward to this season…
“We have to learn from it. I don’t think you go through a collapse like that and not really soul search, and not think about what you did wrong and why you didn’t get the job done…We’re gonna have to deal with that.
“I’m gonna tell my guys, yeah, right now we might be remembered for the way we finished the season, but we have a chance to get back and show people what we’re made of and redeem ourselves and get back to where we’re supposed to be…
“That’s part of the job of the coaching staff and I to make sure that we stay positive and that we dwell on those things. Obviously, it’s going to creep in to your psyche when you go through that, but I think my guys are tough enough and professional enough that once we start the season then it’s about getting back to where we need to be. I have confidence in my guys that they’ll bounce back from this.”
…in some ways, i believe that if the Mets win the World Series next season, then last season will be viewed as just a set-back in a larger narrative…you know, one step back, two steps forward…however, if the Mets do not win the World Series, regardless of whether they make the NLCS, etc, last season will continue to be referenced…it will be seen as a lost opportunity, ‘what could have been,’ etc, and no player or manager will be able to escape that…
…and so, again, if this team does not win it all, depending on how it all plays out, one year from now we could be talking about a pretty big overhaul…that seems crazy, because no team should exist beneath such unrealistic expectations, but i just don’t see how an organization will be able to keep going in to battle, and be expected to win, year after year, with a group of people who must perform with such a large cloud over their heads…
To watch a clip of Randolph speaking about the ‘collapse,’ and next season, click here.
