Note: Framing Willie Randolph
In a report for the Bergen Record, Ian O’Conner talks with Willie Randolph about the manager’s image among fans.
Randolph, on not being helped by SNY, as quoted by O’Conner, who pens a fascinating column about the skipper:
“(The television producers) are the artists, I’m the canvas. They paint the picture the way they want to. They want to show me when somebody gives up a home run or somebody makes an error, so they want to see me [using profanity]…Well, my players are watching the monitors in the bullpen going, ‘Look at Skip, he’s cursing us out.’ That’s not how I lead. But when the game is over, I’m [on them]. ‘And why don’t you turn over a couple of [food] spreads?’ I’ve done that. You might not know it.
“Why [isn’t] SNY shooting me when I’m ready to go down the dugout clapping my hands and patting guys on the butt, schooling them during the game? I’m on the top step every game…Why don’t you show that side of me so people can say, ‘Wow, jeez, Willie’s fiery’?…You watch any manager in baseball, you see him look like a bump on the log sitting there. They don’t move, they don’t talk. I’m as animated and as demonstrative and as involved and as intense as any manager in baseball.”
…the above is just a sample…so, you should read o’conner’s entire column, as they discuss some interesting topics…
In Sunday’s New York Post, Ryan Church was asked to compare the managerial styles of Randolph and Manny Acta, who he played for in DC, and said:
“Similar. You see those managers out there who get up in your face and scream in front of the camera and all this other stuff – they’re not like that. But, they have that in them…behind closed doors.”
Speaking of ‘behind closed doors,’ Lee Mazzilli had the following to say about the subject during last night’s post-game show on SNY:
“What happens behind closed doors is the most important thing, that we as outsiders never get to see or hear. When we’re allowed in there, we see a different type of clubhouse. It’s behind closed doors when those leaders stand out, that’s the most important thing.”
