|
The Mets have fired Willie Randolph, and named bench coach Jerry Manuel their interim manager.
Pitching coach Rick Peterson and first base coach Tom Nieto have also been relieved of their coaching duties.
Ken Oberkfell will be hired as the team’s new first base coach, Dan Warthen will be the new pitching coach, and Luis Aguayo will be Manuel’s bench coach.
Oberkfell had been the manager of the team’s Triple-A New Orleans affiliate, while Warthen had been the pitching coach, and Aguayo the team’s field coordinator.
According to an AP report, as of three hours after Monday’s game, Mets players hadn’t heard of Willie’s dismissal, and utility man Marlon Anderson opted not to comment until he “heard the news from a member of the team.”
 |
 |
 |
RSS 2.0 Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Well willie it was bad while it lasted.
O boy, I came here to leave a comment expressing my opinion in truest form, but that did it for me.
no one is untouchable….hope they get the msg now
Sandy Alomar is untouchable, evidently.
You know – I’ve never bought into the Latino thing. Thought it was simplistic and unfair. But why in the world did we fire the manager, pitching coach and 1B coach, and keep the worst 3B coach in the National League?
If we value Alomar’s knowledge of the game and/or his relationships with the players, fine – but for the love of God, make him a bench coach or put him at 1st..
Why is he the worst 3rd base coach in the league? Because Schneider got thrown out at home on sunday? Why did they fire Tom Nieto then? Can you give me some reasons on why you think Alomar is the worst 3B coach? What do they even do besides relay signs and wave guys home?
Actually Schneider thing was kind of out of character in that it was a rare show of aggressiveness – reckless and a poor choice, but at least it was aggressive.
I would rate Alomar where I do because he (a) holds runners up inexplicably even when they reach third while the ball is rattling around in the corner or has not yet reached an outfielder and (b) never goes first to third on a single to RF where the play is behind the runner and the decision is totally on the coach.
I would venture a guess (and this would be one for the folks at Elias) that the Angels went first to third more last night alone than the Mets have ALL SEASON with the exception of plays where the runner was already in motion.
Again, I know Alomar is respected for his infield work – he certainly helped Wright with his defense. And he does have a reputation for being well-liked in the clubhouse, possibly in part because he is a native Spanish speaker in a a clubhouse where that is arguably the primary language.
So put him at 1B or make him the bench coach, put Oberkfell at third and hire a 1B coach. But if you’re going to do a purge and try to make a statement that “mediocrity is unacceptable”, then you have to make a change at who’s coaching third.
Well said. All tag ups are initiated by the third base coach. He is also responsible for a runner on second. His job is to watch the SS, the runner watches the 2nd baseman. I don’t think Alomar has done a good job.
they did him a favor by firing him on the road, now he doesnt have to endure the NY media in NY. paul oneil for manager!
HOJO needed to join willy as well!
It had to be done, even if this was the wrong way to do it.
I wish Willie all the luck in his future endeavors (no doubt he’ll be back with a team in some capacity sometime soon).
I hope the Mets hire someone who isn’t Manuel to be the permanent manager though. He’s just about as laid back as Willie, and the majority of fans want some fire in the clubhouse.
Upward and onward fellow Mets fans, upward and onward.
Im with you. The fact is regardless of the timing and regardless of the impression it may leave and lack of communication apparently with the team as it happened, IT WAS THE RIGHT MOVE. Willie had to go. The team needed a jolt and this is that jolt. If the team does not respond well then they know it will be the players next. It does not matter to me at all that it was handled poorly. What do you expect. Its like the Mets look up the way to do it right and go the exact opposite way on almost all of these items.
No biggie to me either way. Willie will be fine and probably is breathing a bit easier now that it is out of the way. As to Peterson and Nieto, who cares. I think coaches are very minor influences on performance of these stars. But with young kids…they have an effect which is why I like bringing in the AAA manager and pitching coach because clearly this team is getting younger next year and planning to bring up the FMarts and Evans and Carps and Murphys and Kunzs etc of our system and filtering them into our team.
For that reason alone Willie needed to go. His answer to young talent was to sit them down or to place them at the end of the lineup and shut em up. Is it any coincidence that Milledge flopped and Pelfrey struggled and Gotay was buried etc etc. Hell wille had Wright batting like 7th for most of his first year and 5th and 6th for most of his 2nd year.
I agree with your assessment of Willie in terms of the younger players if [and I don't know for sure] it was indeed Willie’s handling of the situation. I’ve never been confident of who is running the show here but I think it’s Jeff Wilpon who has a lot of say and probably knows less than anyone in the organization.
I don’t agree with your first statement about how it was done. That kind of treatment speaks for the organization. The people in charge should know how to go about such decisions in a professional way. They had a lot of options about how to approach it but chose to let Omar do the dirty work. They are a bunch of ball-less and clueless incompetents. I was never in favor of Willie but he did not deserve to be strung along the way he was and allowed to go to the West Coast only to be fired there to avoid the media and fan attention. I will be interested to hear what Omar has to say. He will not answer questions directly, will stumble along saying, “you know” and likely not answer any questions about his bad decisions.
he said black last month.
once you say black you can’t go back
Just wrong…
Wow. I watched the game and after seeing the Mets beat the Angels I thought Willie & Co. had saved themselves another day so I go out and just came back home now to find out Willie, Rick and Tom were fired. I know he was in seriously in trouble of his job but I have to say I’m a little shocked at the timing, that it was so early in the morning.
*I know he was in serious trouble
i knew they would attack after win
so they wouldnt get him in his absolute worst mood
or whathaveyou — i said it in the last posting before it happened
i predicted this
im a genius
It had to be done.
Atleast now I can shutup about it.
Good luck in the future Willie.
Willie got screwed…
Dismissed? Ha! Where is my tissue? I don’t think this move gets any of those zombies in the dugout moving. Another nail in the coffin of your 2008 New York Mets. The problem is way deeper than this. They should all go on Oprah and air it out while they change their diapers.
Yup.
Great point !!!!
An act of total cowardice,having Willie fly to Ca then fire him is just dispicable.Omar Minaya is a slimy rat who craves the spotlight and has proved nothing.Willie is better off moving away from this miserable bunch of twisted screwed up know nothings.
Peterson was the cause of all of this misery.When they collapsed last year it wasn’t because they didn’t score runs-It was because the pitching and bullpen sucked and blew games.No different than this year.
it’s not Willie’s fault that Oliver Perez can’t get his sorry ass to pitch consistantly or Joe Smith can’t get a righty out or Wagner Blowing 3 straight games. These guys got Williy Fired.Oh yeah isn’t it just too much that the night Willie gets fired Aaron Heilman gives one of his finest performances after stinking up almost everygame he’s been in.
Oh Yeah-The Wilpons-You can take your new ballpark and shove it up your asses
later
JM
Lol. You’re an idiot. I would think Willie might have logged onto Metsblog to post this, but he is too classy. Omar could have fired Willie a longgggggggggg time ago. Anybody who knows anything about the situation knows Omar is the only reason Willie came back for 2008 anyway.
And anyone who knows anything about the situation “knows” that Omar is primarily responsible for the way the team has played the last year. By a wide margin. Ain’t even close.
Nope. Willie is primarily responsible for players underachieving. That’s what we will see shortly when a smart manager that doesn’t lose his clubhouse gets here.
Yeah, seriously. That doesn’t even make sense. Why would Omar be responsible for the way that they played? The same team that ran away with the entire league in 2006 choked in 2007. Why is that Omars fault? Anybody that thinks that Omar cooked up the idea to bring him out to the west coast and fire him in the middle of the night in the eastern time zone is silly. This is the plans of the ownership.
FAH, since you blame 2007 solely on Omar, does he get all of the credit for 2006?
By the way, I think since you blame Omar for our losses, it must mean you are a racist. When I said that Wright and Church and Wagner seemed the hungriest to win and Delgado and Reyes looked lifeless about 2 weeks ago, you called me a racist. This must make you a racist also.
But thats okay, you thought it would be cute if you took a quote out of my post and tried to use it against me. Unfortunately for you, the post clearly made no sense at all. If you said that you didn’t like Omars 2007 roster, okay fine, but to blame the underperformance of nearly all of their players on a GM is absurdly stupid.
But then again, Free Aaron Heilman is probably the most ignorant poster here, so take it with a grain of salt.
Yea real cowardice, here’s a few million dollars to sit on your couch the next two years. I’m sure Willie can deal with one 5 hour flight.
manuel was bench coach for the 2007 championship marlins? did u mean the 1997 or 2003 team?
The 1997 team. Thanks for the catch; that was copied straight from the press release.
Hey Omar, way to handle this one. You are like school on Saturday NO CLASS! Why did you make the guy fly across country to get fired? I’ve got no problem with letting Willie go, because obviously he lost the clubhouse (checkout Beltran and Wright’s comments about how they don’t play to save the manager’s job). If they backed Willie they would have said they were trying hard for him. Omar, you should have done it last week after the debacle in San Diego. You’re a jerk and you are next on the list.
Maybe Omar is a jerk (not really), but you are the idiot.
Besides, Omar gave Willie his first chance in the first place. If he fired him last night, people would have said he was a jerk for firing him on fathers day. Cant win with you guys.
There will prob be many Stankee fans on here now saying Omar is classless, but you better remember one thing Omar gave Willy his 1st shot as a manager when many others would not even give him a look..
Am I missing something here?????
Our teams season is going down in flames, and we’re all supposed to care that Willie Randolph, who’s now gonna collect several million $$$$$ for sitting on his ass and doing nothing, was ‘made’ to fly to California? That’s the most idiotic thing I’ve ever heard!!!!!!!!!! So, he had to take a plane flight, and THEN was fired. SO WHAT!!!!!!!!
I agree this should have happened probably last week or so, but who the hell cares that Randolph had to fly out west first.
Hey man, it’s tough being a multi-millionaire. ;(
“Willie you’re fired.”
“I’m going to Disneyland!”
Willie’s going on a “nice little” vacation
Thank you Willie for your efforts while you were here – regardless of the results, I truly feel he did everything he felt was possible to make this a winning team. I will not be surprised to see him managing another team in the future.
That said, this is the last chance for this team as currently constructed to turn things around. Even though Willie wasn’t out on the field under performing, he has been fired. If they can’t turn things around, maybe it will be time to actually hold some of the players who have played so poorly accountable….
willie will never manage in mlb again…..guaranteed
He will be managing by 2010 at the latest
Yes classless by Omar.
He should have been fired Sunday night instead of winning a game on Sunday, flying 3000+ miles, win a game, and then be fired in the middle of the night.
Does Ken Obekfell become the new bench coach? Can we get Keith Oberman to be the new hitting coach?
And I do have to say this, at least Omar didn’t make Willie the only scapegoat. But I don’t understand how Howard Johnson remained the hitting coach.
This wasn’t Omars idea. This is so clear to me I dont get how everybody doesn’t see it this way. This was a PR move (and probably a bad one) so that the firing wouldn’t make the papers today. This has been planned out since Saturday supposedly. Does it make sense to anybody that Omar (pretty much Willie’s only supporter, and the reason he was back in 2008 in the first place, Wilpon didn’t want him back) would cook up something like this? This is all ownerships way of trying to get the least backlash out of this. Omar unfortunately will take a lot of heat even though I am almost positive that it was not his idea to fly Willie out west and fire him in the middle of the night.
As much as he didn’t succeed, I can’t help feeling bad for the guy. He is a good and classy guy (racist comments not withstanding), and I hope he does well, though it could be a while before he manages again, if ever. Sorry it had to go down this way Willie
I can’t say I’m not happy about it…It needed to be done…but as usual in typical Met fashion, they continue to baffle…in California/5AM after a win…just plain baffling to me…
Actually the story broke around 3:30am EST, which is 12:30am in California!
Okay, that’s not much better…
Omar, you are gutless. To make Willie go cross country, to make a move in Cali., far away from NY at the start of a seven game road trip, after a win. Just a spineless move. Should’ve done it last week or Sunday in NY. Jerry Manuel is not much better. All he does special is go for the suicide squeeze.
Yeah, it would have been okay for Willie to be fired on fathers day, but he cant fly back home to NY. Too bad. Was it spineless when Omar gave Willie his first chance after 10 other teams wanted nothing to do with him? Omar is the reason that Willie even made it this long, Wilpons wanted him gone last october. You guys are clowns.
It’s freakin father’s day who cares. At least if he was fired that day he could have spent the night with his kids instead of hoping on a plane.
It’s classless timing, simple as that.
At this point Omar is just trying to save himself.
If Omar wanted to save himself why would he fire the manager? Making him next on the chopping block? Again, this decision was made by people above Omar, because why would Omar bring Willie out west and then fire him after a win. This move was decided a couple of days ago. Omar was one of Willie’s only supporters. Why should Omar take the blame for the teams performance. Everybody who matter picked the Mets to run away with the NL. But now somehow it is Omar’s fault, when the entire country thought that he put together a juggernaut?
Omar is gutless for the way he handled this thing and let it drag on so long … and for using Willie as a scapegoat.
At least Ricciardi told it like it was for the Blue Jays and took blame and responsibility for their performance.
Oh, and kudos to the Mariners for not using their manager as a scapegoat for their poor play. They hit it on the nail by firing the GM.
Lol. Maybe that is because Bill Bavasi is widely known as probably a top 5 worst GM in baseball and has made bad move after bad move for around 4 years. And believe me, Mclaren will be gone soon to.
I guess he felt Sandy Alomar was too good to let go…or was it that hes hispa….nevermind
I cant believe I actually agreed with what Mike and the Maddog had to say…but i think the mets missed there window to fire willie…and now they are going to get bombed.
Bandaid. Scapegoats. Ludicrous. Nothing will change until they change the cast of characters. Hope I’m wrong, but I doubt it.
On top of that, this was handled about as badly as could be. The whole will he or won’t he drama was distracting to everyone.
The only silver lining is that Oberkfell is finally getting a chance to coach on the major league level. What took them so long?
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Well, It was handled horribly by Omar and Co. This was pathetic. Don’t make a guy fly 5 hrs to be fired while we are all asleep. If this was a done deal, which it obviously was, then it should have been done on Friday.
All that being said…I am invigorated with new hope. The stench of 2007 has been cleansed. There are still 90+ games in 2008, and its time to play real baseball.
LETS GO METS!!! LETS GO METS!!! LETS GO METS!!!
PS. Now that Willie is gone, I promise I will talk real baseball on here.
wow, they handled that as cowardly and badly as possible, after bungling the whole situation.
I agreed with Matt’s late night post, I would have loved to see them pull out of this with Willie at the helm. He should have gotten a chance to sweep the Phillies and get back in this thing.
And I know that’s an unpopular opinion.
;)
I don’t think it’s that unpopular of an opinion. As we’ve seen over in the Bronx, a new manager does not solve a team’s woes!
The only way I can explain the timing of this is if Omar went in telling Willie that he wants to fire his coaches and Willie backed them up and said something like “if they go I go” and Omar said fine.
I don’t think it really matters how this was done. Willie Randolph was an “at will” employee of the Mets organization. We don’t know the circumstances surrounding the timing of this, but in any event, the Mets have the right to terminate anyone’s employment, at any time. Lets get over it, its done. Time to move on, new era begins on June 17th, 2008.
Sunset, I agree that it doesn’t ultimately ‘matter,’ it just reveals what a two bit organization this is.
as for getting over it. I will be over it at 10:05 pm eastern time/
yes what a new era, I mean with the blood on the hands of Nieto…
Alomar and DoDo and Manuel remain, window dressing move.
The only saving grace is that the CEO of pitching finally is gone.
willie was being to funny during the end of his run,,,,while the media endeared that as being gutsy in any other setting its disrepectful
alomar btw is awful as 3rd base coach….hopefully his duties sre reassigned
so is making him board the plane and firing him after a win.
uh….people get laid off when they are good at their jobs….and stay up at night thinking how they will feed their kids…
willie will collect $$$$$$….more money then he ever made as a player….this coming after leading an historical collapse….lets hold back the tears
in the same breath you compare this to people struggling to feed their kids and then jump back to leading the “historical collapse” as if it was so devastatingly important or painful, that type of stuff is just part of sports, as is losing ones job, but they did not have to be so stupid about how they did this, stupid and spineless, they did this to protect themselves from the questions, you can bet one thing, there will be no Wilpons at this press conference
why the hell would the wilpons fly to Anaheim for a press conference?
ugh… if i ever get fired from my job it better not be a day after they made me fly 3,000 miles.
at least the jacket got canned too. i was sick of him.
whatever, Omar. This situation is now squarely on your shoulders, for better or worse.
LGM. Please?
Omar has no more excuses. He is Next if it continues to go down hill. It was the worst possible time to do it.
Something had to be changed but not the firing of Willie, especially not at this time. Jerry Manuel, is no different my friends.
Agreed Omar has no more excuses.
IF? IF!?!?
It was a spineless time to do it and while something had to change keeping DoDo around because he was the weak link on the 1986 Mets and cutey McWright’s hero is lame.
Manuel, sure he is a nice guy too, but lame he has been here for all of this struggle.
Alomar?
Good grief, why not just fire the hot dog vendors instead.
Hmmm, nice guys finish last or is it next to last. Would someone please tell me how a manager motivates players??? Self respect and playing up to ability should be motivation enough. I was not a big Willie supporter but I think the Wilpons were afraid to wait until the AS break [does Willie still get to coach? guess not] because they have wanted him out since the collapse.
And I do think that Omar has to take a lot of the responsibility for this team. Even if some moves were potentially good the fact that El Duque and Pedro went down after the AS game and weren’t available when they were needed most is accountable to Omar. Alou was a great pickup but did they expect him to be available for even most of the season? And something is fishy with Pagan not coming back. I don’t trust this FO at all.
Classless – yes – I’d have to agree. No matter if he should have been fired or not, this was just an extremely poor way of handling the whole thing by the Wilpons and Omar over the past several weeks – right up to the firing after the start of a west coast trip.
If I was Willie, I’d be breathing a sigh of relief this whole circus act is over for him.
Time to move on for all. Not that I have any reason to believe these changes are going to make one bit of difference the rest of the season. Time will tell…..
That’s right. In fact Willie comes out smelling like a rose.
People will empathize and will forget willie ball.
this was the worst time possible to fire him.. make a man fly across the country, and win a game where we do good things we havent done all year… and they fire the coach after that? we won god dammit!!! fire him after the colorado series, or the padres series, but not when we start to get on a roll… this is horrible, and there realizing him for jerry manuel, someone who is just like him… its a sad day to be a met fan when your front office is as retarded as this.
Well, at least I can look forward to Delgado returning to the power hitter he once was and reversing his steep fielding decline. And for Aou to start being healthy and young enough to play regularly. And for Ollie to stop acing like Jekyll and Hyde. And for Church’s concussion to magically disappear. And for Wagner, Sanchez, Feliciano, Show, and Heilman to all stop blowing games.
Because we all know Willie and Peterson were responsible for all that.
Geesh. :roll:
what you can really look forward too is a ton of change, because Tom Nieto was so guilty and Jerry Manuel was like not involved at all for the last three years
A ton of change how? Do you really think now that Jerry Manual is manning the ship that the bullpen will miraculously get better and consistent? Do you think our days of watching a lead in the 8th goes right out the window the minute the starter leaves the field? Or do you think Oliver and John Maine will suddenly make consistently good starts just because Willie is gone? Here’s one change – a change in attitude toward the ownership of this team. I’ve completely lost respect for them. I can understand the dismissal of Peterson only because most of their problems come down to their pitching staff. But Willie? No way. And the manner in which they did it was classless.
You need to turn on your sarcasm detector.
thank you, I thought I had drenched it enough…but apparently
AMEN!
This organization is a total and absolute farce.
Minaya clearly has no autonomy. Little Jeff Wilpon shows his true colors which is white rat.
What a terrible horrible hack job. Minaya total utter disgrace, fire him away from having to answer too many questions.
What a total absolute joke, I would like to throw my fanwalk brick in his face and bounce it off the Wilpons.
Pathetic. There are no other words for how dim this team is.
I couldn’t agree more. I hope that all the Met home games are rained out because it was too expensive to put a roof on a stadium. Why doesn’t Fred sign Koufax, at least that would be a little class to this organization. A holes
WTF? It gets harder and harder to root for this team.
I turn on Mets FF and I see this on the bottom. It makes me sick. What a terrible job by the Mets organization. Forget everything that has happened with the team. I feel horrible for Willie. How do you think he feels being in Cali when his family is here. Now he has to wait to get a flight back and then fly another 5 hours. They should have done it here, in NY, before the last homestand, since I’m sure they already made up their minds then.
exactly. i fell asleep in the bottom of the 7th last night, wake up and hear that willie is fired. then i found out we WON the game.
and this business of not telling the players is quite “impressive,” even for our beloved new york myets.
oh I doubt they made up their minds, the Mets continue to operate based on the insanity of the press and howling in the streets, this organization could not stick to game plan if they had to staple it too their head
but certainly firing the guy after he wins 3 of 4, after the first game of their 4th west coast trip in 45 days is sheer brilliance, I mean hey if it was not for big mouthed little rube closer they would have won 6 of 8, it is all so brilliant, and replace him with his bench coach because they are polar opposites in the bizarro world
I totally agree. Classless on Wilpon and Minaya’s part! Utterly classless!
I am so mad about the firing of Willie Randolph! They have been playing really well lately and if not for Wagner’s multiple blown saves, they would have 3-4 more wins in their pocket right now. They went into the 9th with those wins. Is it Willie’s fault that Wagner sucked for a few days? NO! Is it Willie’s fault his bullpen has been mediocre AT BEST all season? NO! Heilman, Feliciano, Smith, these are guys that seem to either be lights out or blow the entire game. I guess with Torre gone, NY Baseball needed a new scapegoat. When are we going to start pointing fingers at the players who make millions and sometimes just don’t produce? Look what a change of manager did for the Yankees! NOTHING GOOD.
I’m so mad I can’t write any more.
So my vote…a big old Shea style BOOOOO for the Wilpons and Minaya!
oh they will likely get a way with a 5-1 road trip now and the dolts will be screaming see, with Willie gone, and you will have to wait a month to watch the same old Mets bumble at Shea to chirp the boos.
I hope when Shea goes down it takes out a chunk of Fred’s toy just for a little karma.
Kevin Burk just said it best on SNY, “The timing of this is completely bizarre. To do it on the west coast, when the entire east coast is asleep, is just mindboggling.”
i mean, did they think we wouldn’t find out about it if they waited till 3 am to do it? what the ****?
More like Christmas in June. You wake up early in the morning to find that Omar left you a gift under the tree.
and now if the mets turn it around…manuel will be the coach for years to come….this can’t get any better can it…
It’s nice to see after all these years, this franchise continues to find new ways to embarrass themselves. It would have been foreign to me to watch the Mets actually handle something right for a change.
People can blame Omar all they want. Fact is, he’s only going to get canned by the end of the season anyway. From my view, there’s one common thread that seems to tie the classless, ineptitude of this organization together, and that thread starts way at the tippy-top of this team with the Wilpons.
jeff wilpon is a punk if he doesn’t face the media. and by facing the media I don’t mean leaking malicious gossip anonymously.
Classy, really classy. I mean, is it really this difficult to handle JUST ONE THING properly and with the dignity that befits a respectable franchise ?
I’d like to give the Wilpons the benefit of the doubt here, but they need to take some responsibility for allowing the inmates (Minaya, Bernazard, Delgado, et al) running the asylum.
Do you think this nonsense would happen in Boston? Not a chance. There’s a reason why that franchise has its act together, and it all starts with ownership….
Oh well, at least this means we can stop with the “Fire Willie” posts. Let’s get the “Omar Must Go” placards ready!!!
no, no, no, the slogan is in omar we trust, remember? Matt, how are sales for those t shirts doing?
Delgado and Bernazard do not even get along so that is just imaginary, the only inmates are the Wilpons and their hack board of morons.
A LOT of this goes back to David Howard and Jeff Wilpons queer “Your Season Has Come” followed by “Your Post Season Has Come” and if you think it does not you are kidding yourselves, those morons and the marketing department had so much egg on their face in their circles when it blew up last September THAT is why they where most steamed.
You said it well. The inmates are truly running the asylum….
This one is easy: Fire Minaya, FIRE MINAYA !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Or, perhaps, we can start a “sell the team” movement, a la those disgruntled Knicks fans….
I’ll tell you one thing. I bet that the Phils are enjoying their breakfast today after hearing about this debacle.
What did Nieto do wrong?
a better question is what did Nieto do?
He could not translate as well as Alomar.
And I do not want to hear any crap for anyone that this comment was uncalled for, I have been top step supporter for Minaya since day one there is no other reason that Alomar retains his job other than they have no one to connect with 70% of the clubhouse otherwise.
So it is not a racial thing, it is just a fact. This team is dim.
It was recently leaked, from “reliable” sources, that his high-fives have been lacking spirit.
this is further proof we all root for a mickey mouse franchise…why do it now? theyve been playing somewhat better, and just took a game from the best team in the AL…only let go of nieto/jacket? why not the entire staff? cant see how a 1st base coach has ANYTHING to do w a team playing badly, teams no hitting all that great but HOJO stays? cmon i know he played for the mets 10 years ago, but cmon here people, bottom line is that now, there are no more excuses, team plays poorly, cant put it on willie anymore…at the end of the day, its really on the players to go out there and perfrom, to get the job done….id really like to hear what the players are going to say about this…
Maybe the Mets should have taken a page out of the Yankee handbook to firing managers….. oh, wait, they did!!!
At least we won’t have to read anymore “Fire Willie” comments on Metsblog.
I’m pretty indifferent to the move, much like the team is to winning ballgames. Yes, I felt Willie had to go and a change needed to be made…but I don’t know how Hojo keeps his job…clearly a transparent attempt to appease David Wright. I mean, if you are going to clean house, clean out everybody.
So Willie is finally gone….now what?
not much because Manuel, DoDo and Alomar are still there which gives Oberkfell and Warthen nothing but a jersey
Oh, one more thing…. I have a feeling the Nieto firing has more to do from player feedback. ……. On my way out the door, have a good day everyone!
HAHAHAHA PEACE WILLIE! THIS WILL BE A GREAT DAY AT WORK!!!!!!
NICE TO KNOW YOU, YOU IDIOT WILLIE RANDOPE!
coming from someone who chooses pac man jones as their handle, I am sure Willie will survive such comedy as the kindergartenesque altering of his name
I have to finally comment on you, dude. You are the single most negative poster on this blog. You seem to like no one and nothing even remotely connected with the NY Mets. Hard to figure out what you’re even doing here.
Are you a Phillies fan in disguise trying to fuel the flames?????
FREE WALLY BACKMAN!
Finally. Lets hope this jump starts the team.
Manuel is a good replacement.
Oberkfell is a no-nonsense coach. (No slackers)
Hopefully Warthen can lift the attitude and handle the bullpen better.
how in the world do you see Randolph’s right hand man as a good replacement, it changes NOTHING.
Oberkfell has as much no nonsense in that locker room at the moment as Mr. Met.
Some of you people are totally blind, firing Randolph, fine whatever, half the staff is still there, the message it sends is we have no idea what is going on so we need to keep some continuity to at least keep it mediocre.
Hey, Do any of us really know who is under Mr. Mets head. Maybe there isn’t anything under it. Or maybe it’s Jeff Wilpon or maybe Mr. Met should have gotten fired too.
I wanted Willie gone as much as anyone but the Mets and their idiot owner and GM have managed to make Willie a sympathetic figure with the way they completely botched this, they can’t even fire a manager properly. I’m embarrassed by this mess of a franchise.
NY Mets=Gutless, Classless Organization!!! As time goes on, and the team continues with its mediocre ways, they’ll soon realize that it wasn’t the manager, it was the mediocrity of the team which was put together by the idiot Minaya.
Prediction: In a few year’s time, Mets fans are universally not going to like Minaya’s inevitable replacement. Nor will they probably like the job done by his replacement’s replacement.
Since 2002, we’ve watched a team with more than $100 in payroll finish in dead last a couple of times, we saw arguably our best pitching prospect since Gooden traded for a bag of magic beans, two managerial changes were completely bungled, and we experienced probably the biggest collapse in baseball history. We’ve had 3 GMs, 3 managers, and about a half-dozen roster overhauls in that time yet this franchise still can’t seem to get out of its own way.
Simply put, for this franchise to ever actually build something a la the Sox, theythe Wilpons are going to have to give their new GM REAL autonomy, and they’re going to have to put their money in places they’re not comfortable putting it, in scouting and player development. I just don’t see them ever making those adjustments.
As usual the Mets handle things in a CLASSLES WAY. You fire the guy at 3AM and after they win a game. We are the embarassment of baseball today, this is a disgrace the way they handled this. Only the Mets can fire a manager and make him look sympathetic. You want to fire him, I have no problem with that, but do it with a little class and dignity. Why couldn’t you wait until today to do it or even their day off to do it? Hey Omar you know what they say about karma pal, when your fired next, which I hope is real soon, because your the architect of this team, I hope the Wilpons fire you at 3AM too.
it was midnight in California though
I think this may show that Omar is the culprit in this one.
To begin with, the Moises was handled bad, Church was handled bad, Heilman was handled poorly, Willie’s firing was handled badly, the farm system is handled badly. On top of that, we just don’t have a lot of good players. Omar and Tony Bernazard ought to be canned as well. Something isn’t right still.
Any way you slice it, bleak day for NY baseball. I didn’t think much of WR, but he embodied NY baseball, and I wanted to see if he could overcome the learning curve by helping make the Mets surge into October ‘08.
More important than the awkwardness of this decision is what the hell has been going on behind the scenes. Can’t wait to read the book on this one. Perhaps we’ll find out Manuel had major disagreements w/ Willie. I don’t give a flying F#$k about how “laid back” the guy is as long as he inspires and makes solid decisions.
Players have problems to be sure, but the right manager will get the most out of them.
Best result of these moves so far, I think, is promotion of Oberkfell.
Let’s Go Mets!
can I get an inkling of a clue as to what Aguayo has done to merit essentially being the assitant coach…
anyone, Bueller?
you have to fire the manager before you fire the GM.
if the Mets cant turn this around you will see a new team at Citi Field.
although how is HoJo still on this team. Great guy, great player, terrible hitting coach…
I agree. However, it may be that Hojo was only following Willie’s lead.
Very similar to when they dismissed Art Howe. We all knew he’s most likely be gone after that season, but word “leaked” about 2 weeks left to go in the season. And Howe had to come out and say” if you’re gonna do it, just do it already”. And this was pre-Omar…just another sign that the Wilpons are hopeless at this stuff
Absolutely classless job by the Mets.
I hoped Willie would at least get the season. The only good thing now is no more of these stupid Fire Willie chants
The Mets haven’t won a game since Manuel took over as manager. Fire Jerry Manuel!
Ha. Exactly…
FIRE MANUEL!
He’s been the manager for 7 hours now, and I haven’t seen the team change one bit.
Sure, things were bad with Willie, but Manuel has to go, damn it. I’m sick of him doing nothing, not inspiring this team at all.
FIRE MANUEL!
(just getting an early start…)
Good to see they decided to hire from the retread manager-go-round. Because clearly, Jerry will be able to make everyone hit and pitch just like they did in 2006. Clearly….
But look at it this way– at least they didn’t hire Jimy Williams….or take a flyer on Grady Little’s “skill sets”….though it would have been fun to watch him leave Pedro in for one batter too many in a “meaningful game” in September against the first-place Phillies….
They should have just promoted Oberkfell. Now they’ll keep Manuel until Omar gets fired after the season– but not before Oberkfell walks away to manage somewhere else (a la Manny Acta), and we’ll get a chance to watch another young manager with upside lead another team.
I propose a new slogan: “With Omar We Bust!”
I got a text from my friend at WFAN around 3am, saying this was likely to go down.
And I’ll maintain — that the only thing missing, surrounding the NY Mets lately is the Ringling Brothers theme music. There’s a way to handle business and the media in New York City, and the decision makers involved with the team seem to be miss the boat far too frequently……it’s like they need to embarrass themselves.
They could’ve done this 3 weeks ago and looked fine in the process — instead it kept dragging out, with no rhyme or reason at all. Now after flying the entire staff out to the West Coast, they pull the trigger?
Laughable — but an inevitable conclusion nonetheless. Good luck to Willie and the coaching staff in their future endeavors.
FYI — This dates back to the mishandling of Piazza’s move to 1st base, continued along with Art Howe’s alleged “firing” within the season — only to stay and manage out the entire 162-games, and continues to this day, with each bungling of an injured player’s situation.
Glad to see our current manager, and most of the coaching staff — was put through the same ringer.
There were many arguments about whether or not Willie was clueless at times…..I think that the Met front office is proving themselves to be QUITE with the way they sit on their hands.
Time to turn the page and learn from mistakes….hasn’t happened yet. Hopefully, they get themselves in order and put this team in the best position to win going forward.
I’m personally was not on the Fire Wille bandwagon, so I don’t like the move, and I can’t stand the cowardly way it was perpetuated. I’m not here to whine about Willie being fired…I want this team to win, so all that matters is today forward.
However, this move does LITTLE to change the culture of this club. Manuel is just as blameworthy for the mess of the last 200+ days as any of the coaches. Howard Johnson, under whom our bats have struggled since last July, remain. I love Hojo – I grew up idolozing him…but he was nothing but a dead-read fastball hitter who never mastered offspeed pitches…and our results under his tenure speak for themselves. And worse yet, the meddling Omar-lapdog Tony Bernazard remains. Until those heads roll (particularly the latter), I don’t foresee the culture of this club changing.
Lastly, say what you will about Randolph’s baseball smarts, his laid back approach, his clairevoyant gut, etc., but the bottom line is that he was a classy…and it pains me to see the Wilpons and Minaya/Bernazard make an abject mockery of our franchise. This is a dark day for Mets fans not because of the firing per se, but the embarassingly Mickey-Mouse manner in which it was handled. We should all be ashamed until gametime gives us somethign else…then…Let’s Go Mets!
Friday was the perfect day to pull the trigger. this is just too bizzare
Great timing Omar, what a scumbag move – wait until the guy takes long flight and then in the middle of the morning fire him. Scumbag.
FIRE OMAR!!!
Dear Wilpons,
Since you are on a firing spree please fire:
HoJo
Alomar
Bernazard
Omar
Thank you.
So all the leaked reports were exactly right? I guess it wasn’t all the media’s fault.
You know the worst part? Delgado still has a job and is probably laughing like Punjab from Annie while combing in his just for men into his beard…while the whole nation is laughing at us. EVERYBODY LAUGHING AT YOU IS NOT A GOOD THING!!!
Bill Madden was on Mike and Mike on ESPN and proceeded to kill the Mets and expose some aspects of this that I didn’t know.
1. Fred Wilpon felt as if he’d gotten fleeced by Willie on his new contract and resented Randolph because of it.
2. Tony Bernazard is in charge of restocking the farm system but hasn’t done that job because he’s “godfather” to the latin players on the team. While befriending Jeff Wilpon and being his go-to guy behind both Omar and Willie Randolphs back.
Madden went as far as to say that Rick Peterson, who turned Maine into a number 2 starter and guided Oliver Perez to 15 wins last season, was fired because BERNAZARD wanted him to be fired.
Madden said Minaya should watch his back because Bernazard is now wielding power behind the scenes.
Thats just what I could type up. Madden went off.
“last season, was fired because BERNAZARD wanted him to be fired.
Madden said Minaya should watch his back because Bernazard is now wielding power behind the scenes.”
awesome. this makes me so excited about the future… =/
Bernazard and Jeff Wilpon making decisions is very scary indeed. Minaya is already twisting in the wind. A source in the Mets organization leaked the firing plans that Minaya had squashed over the weekend. Minaya was forced to pull this trigger.
It was not handled in an appropriate manner, and the timing is bizarre. One thought may have been, and I am reaching here, is that the NY Papers wouldn’t get it in time to print it? who knows. but also, who cares? Wille was a lame duck manager anyway.
After watching him leave Pelfrey in for 1 batter too much, and pitch Feliciano for the 3rd time in 2 days, who is going to argue that Willie should stick around and manage?
Hey, Mutt and Jeff,
Fire Omar and send Alomar with him………….LETS GO METS…LETS GO METS ……………oh, forget this bag of losers…..LETS GO JETS…………LETS GO JETS……….LETS GO….OH MY GOD ARE WE IN TROUBLE…………………….
yea gotta love watching the Jets with Chad Pennington throwing off speed pitches to his wide receivers
So leave then you big baby. Nobody wants you as a Met fan anyway. We wont miss you. Good riddance. You are ALL fairweather bandwagon morons who dont even deserve to root for the Mets. You are an embarrasment to the rest of us and the reason why the rest of the nation thinks of NY fans as a big joke.
“One thought may have been, and I am reaching here, is that the NY Papers wouldn’t get it in time to print it? ”
You are not reaching even a little bit. And this means that this was planned by ownership, because GM’s dont worry about things like stuff getting into the papers. I doubt on saturday afternoon Omar stood up and said….”lets fire Willie on monday night so that we dont have the backlash in the papers on Tuesday”
But I wouldnt be surprised if Jeff Wilpon said that.
What I dont get it is, most of you people were calling for Willies head for a year and a half. So shut up and be happy. The Mets could win a WS and people will complain that we took 7 games instead of 6, and Johan Santana could throw a no hitter and you idiots will complain that it wasn’t a perfect game. Just go root for the yankees all of you chronic complainers and fair weather fans. We dont want you
i JUST bought a randolph jersey and wrote FIRE across the top of his name on the back… what am i gonna do with this piece of crap now??
i just wrote a great post and i forgot to sign in. FAIL.
as much as people today are going to kill the wilpons and omar, the metsblog comment section will probably reach even lower lows today.
Put a line through Randolph and write Omar…………..
A few things:
1. It’s never easy, and usually never smooth letting someone go. If he was let go on Friday, everyone would cry “the media did it!” If he were let go on Sunday, it would have been “how could you fire someone on Father’s day?” If he was let go three weeks ago, Al Sharpton would have been picketing Shea Stadium, and the Wilpons fear that. So we have to live with him getting shuttled across the country to get fired at midnight, after winning. Oh well.
2. I predict the Yankees will have the last laugh on this episode, by having Randolph throw out the first pitch at the all Star Game or have some ceremony for him. I hate those guys.
3. Let’s go Mets. Turn the page. Please, become a fan of this team again, not a critic.
JerryK in Minnesota
Does anyone think this wasn’t known ahead of time? WHO CARES WHEN OR WHERE HE WAS FIRED……Right now Willie has his wife and kids on a first class trip to Disneyland and is enjoying his millions……Good for him….He sucks as a manager though, so STOP COMPLAINING.
I felt bad when i woke up this morning and turned on espn to see that willie got fired at 3am. The mets did not handle this well at all, especially flying willie to LA only to get fired on the road. Not cool at all. With that said i wish good luck to willie as im sure he will find another job. Thanks willie for the good memories. I hope jerry got the cojones to deal since imo hes going to have a bigger bullseye than willie. IMO this media circus is not going anywhere and i feel thats in part to the way the mets handled the willie issue. Also goodbye to the jacket. Thanks for fixing OP and helping maine realize his potential. Thanks for the contributions to the pitching staff. Im sure you also will find another gig. With all that said lets go mets………
I don’t care how much people hate Willie, the way the Mets handled this whole situation was CLASSLESS. And if your someone who blames Willie for the collapse, the sloooooow start, blah, blah, blah, then you gotta give him the credit for ‘06.
As a Met fan I am disgusted right now. Doesn’t matter whether he had to go or not, thats not the way to deal with it. EMABARRASSING.
I have been asking for Willie to be fired for over 2 years.
I have backed Minaya. This, at least right now, is disgusting.
I agree with this too.
Anyone hear the Joel Sherman interview on the Fan with Carton? Those of you who are totally OK with the way the Mets handeled it , well you should have heard the interview. AMATEUR.
I don’t like the way the Mets handled this, and I really did think Willie should get the year, but the reality is there were too many things that went wrong this year already. Many of them weren’t his fault. But the heat was never really off once he called out the network and brought race into it. Once he did that and survived that meeting, the team had to go on an absolute tear for him to be safe. It just didn’t happen. Now it’s time to move on. The success of the team is ALWAYS more important than the success of the manager.
They should have at least finished the series. Fire him on the off day. It’s like they wanted to be mean. Why couldn’t they fire him Sunday, why did they wait till he flew to California? It makes no sense. JUST CLASSLESS AND NASTY.
the only problem i have is that manuel is the manager. I was sorta wishing they would make Oberkfell the manager
Goodbye Willie and I couldn’t be happier, the Mets needed a change and this is and excellent start. Now the Mets have to get a better manager , and trade away some players to get back in the playoff race. If not the Mets are in big trouble, and are going to face a much bigger meltdown. Carlos Delgado is a person who is on my trade away list because he hasn’t proven that he wants to be there. We can pick up someone younger and is at their prime. Jose Reyes isn’t on the list, but he has to step up his game or he could be changing uniforms soon.
You may have won today for the most asinine comment made on Metsblog. Yes, Willie needed to go. Yes, this is a good start. Yess, the Mets need a better manager. But – “Jose Reyes isn’t on the list, but he has to step up his game or he could be changing uniforms soon.” Are you serious? I mean, really. Are you serious? So getting rid of Jose Reyes will make the Mets better, more exciting? Quicker? Younger? Who are you Caarmelo19? How could you even conceive of saying that Reyes may be changing uniforms soon? Can you name me one SS who is younger, better, faster, more talented than Reyes? Oh wait, maybe we can trade him to San Fransisco for Omar Vizquel and his 195 batting average.
Hey Wilpon
You should still have The Kids # on your callr ID.
Give Gary a call.
Gary Carter for manager, and Keith for hitting instructor, try and pull Roger McDowell away from Atlanta for pitching coach.
I do not know why they do not bring in Hernandez as hitting coach. The guy knows how to hit. If you listen to him at the mike each game you hear him correct the batter’s flaws. He would have to be better than HOJO, IMHO, and I wish they would do that. Please repace Alomar on 3rd also.
I cannot believe some of the comments on here. Omar Minaya was absolutely classless in his decision to fire Willie in Los Angeles. If I told you before the yesterday’s game that Willie was going to be fired after flying to Los Angeles, after winning against the Angels, and after the first game of the series you would call me crazy. This act by the Mets is extremely despicable. I do not care about the money that Randolph is making, the way this was handled was indicative of the Mets’ nature.
Every single person on the Mets squad is to blame for the sorry way this season has began. However, the three main individuals that were not fired, Sandy Alomar Sr., Omar Minaya, and Tony Bernazard, shows how much control Omar really has.
Omar fires Willie, Nieto, and Peterson? Yet the other three get to stay? Very odd.
I think what bothers me the most about this whole situation is who DIDN’T get fired. How in the world are Sandy Alomar and Hojo still here? Sandy has his uniform pants raised up to his chin, and doesn’t know how to get his runners from first to third on a single to right. The Angels did it more last night than the Mets have all season I would venture to say. Oh but wait, he speaks Spanish, so he needs to stay so he can tell Jose how well he ran when he gets to third on a triple. I mean, please, really. And, OK. So we fire Jacket because Billy Goat has blown 3 straight saves and the bullpen has been terrible and Ollie can’t hit the side of a truck. But does anyone not recall those 3 consecutive 2-1 losses in San Diego? To think, if the Mets bat could have mustered up more than 2 runs in those games, we would have 3 more wins in the column? But NO, Hojo is Wright’s boy, so he must be doing a terrific job. Let’s keep him. I say, if you fire Nieto, Jacket and Randolph – you fire Alomar, Hojo and Manuel too. Start fresh. Show that you’re done playing around. Keeping those guys on board still brings the sour taste in your mouth of the old regime. They will be winning, but the players will still be asking Manuel, I wonder how Willie is doing. Stupid. Bring in all new faces and see how they do for the rest of the year.
I do not have a problem with Willie being fired. No, he is not responsible for the lack of hitting or the blown saves. But he is responsible to put the best players on the field and to keep those players focused on winning. I do not think he did that well. He is also responsible for nurturing the young guys coming up, and I feel he failed in that area. He needed to assess the situation as to why the highest paid team in the National League has been playing below .500 for over a season. I do not think he understood the seriousness of the situation when I read quotes like “I really felt we put last year behind us”. Any pressure we feel is because of staying in the mix and not reverting back to last year. I don’t sense that at all. No one ever talks about it, no one ever brings it up, so if we are looking a little like we were last year, there’s no correlation.”
Listen, they could have done it better. But one poster said that he believed Minaya did it so late so as to keep it out of the papers today and protect Willie from being bombarded from the NY press. Whether that is true or not, it is a possible scenario.
We need to move on now. We need a manager that will light a fire under these spoiled brat millionaires so they will start playing up to their potential. We need a third base coach that will be aggressive, especially when the timely hits are not coming around. We need a hitting coach that will help hitters get through their slumps. We need a pitching coach that can make adjustments to the pitchers so they can find there groove.
Just for the record, I wish it was HOJO that was going and not Peterson. And I was a big HOJO fan when he played with the Mets. He is just not getting it done. Too many batters are slumping.
Let’s hope that the new manager and coaches will light a fire under these guys. Or else we will have a very long winter ahead of us.
Well, all the “head-hunters” got their wish and Randolph is gone.
Personally, I never felt particularly strongly one way or the other about his prowess as a manager. I believe that professional ball players should be capable of doing the job for which they are (well) compensated.
A manager’s job is primarily to fill out the lineup card, make some in-game decisions, and handle the media.In these areas, Willie was ok. Not great, not awful, but not even remotely responsible for the poor play exhibited by the Mets over the last year or so.
The over/under on the first “Fire Manuel” posts will be the next 2-game losing streak. Of course the calls for Omar’s head will continue unabated, no doubt.
In regards to Manuel, I fail to see that moving the man who stood a foot-and-a-half to Willie’s right, into the head job, will make a substantive difference in the play of this club. I’ll gladly be wrong about this, but don’t expect to be.
In Omar’s case, this is the same GM who rescued this team from oblivion, and put together basically the same club that in ‘06 was considered a cut above in the NL. That their collective skills should suddenly, and dramatically erode in a two-year span, should not, by rational people, be laid solely at his feet. Probably has more to do with increased substance-awareness, than anything else.
I thank Willie for his efforts, as I truly believe that everything he’s done while manager of the Mets, was with the intent to make this a winning ball club. He carried himself with a dignity and class that many of those who have clamored for his blood, could learn a sorely needed lesson from.
Either way, my hope, as always will be that the Mets find a way to play well on a consistent basis and find themselves back in the playoff picture.