Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Open Forum Tuesday: The “You Don’t Change Horses in Midstream" Edition

This week in “Astonishingly Poor Managerial Decisions,” the Mets opted to fire Willie Randolph at 3AM last night after winning two of three games against the Texas Rangers and taking game one against the Angels. For just a moment, let’s put aside the argument of whether firing Willie was justified. What cannot be argued here is how absolutely poorly this firing was executed.

Why fly him to the West Coast, then fire him after only one game out there? And who pays for his flight back to NY? The Mets? Will Willie be forced to purchase his own tickets and fly on Jet Blue and watch the in-flight Sportscenter coverage of his own firing? Rickey’s sorry to feel the need to commit the fax pas of comparing the Mets and Yankees, but the handling of this situation far eclipses last season’s Joe Torre debacle.

Did he deserve it? Rickey says no, but you’re perfectly entitled to argue otherwise in the comments section below (with the forewarning that Rickey will proceed to argue this issue with you like a rabid raccoon). At the very least, Willie had earned himself a far more dignified departure than the one that the Wilpons and Omar Minaya game him last night. Fired after a win: just classless. We don't know about you folks, but Rickey's pretty embarrased to be a Mets fan today. Discuss.

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13 comments:

Noah said...

Did you read Mike's post today? Rant-a-licious indeed, and he makes great points that maybe...just maybe...it's Omar that should be canned.

TheJackSack said...

Any catharsis that Willie's firing could have provided was lost in this ham-fisted debacle.

Shame on the Wilpons and Minaya. Seriously, these are not professionals.

Toasty Joe said...

I don't think everyone should work themselves up in a frothing fit over this. Yeah, it was poorly handled, but geez louise, this guy's lucky he even kept his job this long. I shed no tears for Willie.

George said...

You just got embarrassed to be a Mets fan today? Lucky you.

Rickey said...

Toasty: no, on it's own, this is a petty and stupid incident and two months from now no one will remember it, but it's indicative of the bigger problem. That the Mets are a grossly mismanaged team.

George: Yeah, welcome to the party pal, right?

Rickey Jr. said...

Not to mention the fact that willie doesn't get to coach the all-star game. At least wait until after that game to let him go.

Mike said...

it's indicative of the bigger problem. That the Mets are a grossly mismanaged team.

Ding, ding, ding.

And meanwhile, Tom Nieto -- a real up-and-comer among the top 1B coaches in the NL -- has his rep turned to shit.

All that work getting Brian Schneider to use the left-right-left method to round first . . . out the friggin' window!

An American tragedy I tell ya.

Rickey said...

Rickey was thinking about it, and you know what's the funny thing? Billy Wagner cost Willie his job. If Wags doesn' blow those three saves a little while back, Randolph is still the manager of the New York Mets.

Toasty Joe said...

Rickey - that may be true, but the Mets left the population of a small country on base on those Wagner blown saves, so it shouldn't have even come down to him.

Rickey said...

Toasty: sure, it was a team effort, but in the short term if Wags doesn’t blow one save and the Mets squeeze just out one of those 2-1 games then Willie’s job is still safe. (In the interests of full disclosure, Rickey just wants to see Willie sucker punch Billy Wagner as he's cleaning out his desk at Shea.)

Alex: unless another team hires Willie as a manager within the next two weeks, he ain't going to the All-Star game.

Ed in Westchester said...

Ed has adjusted his links Rickey, and apologizes for the fault in the links. Those responsible have been sacked.

Unknown said...

I wrote about it as well. I'll be blunt: Minaya is a cuelo, as are the Wilpons. If they're going to give up on the season like they have, they might as well trade Wagner and Pedro to teams stocked with blue chip prospects.

A bloody shame indeed.

Rickey said...

Ed (in Westchester): yes, but have the ones responsible for the sacking been sacked?

Ed (the Gent): Rickey wholeheartedly concurs.