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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.”
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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