The Willie Randolph Story
Willie Randolph told Wayne Coffey of the New York Daily News his side of the story. I highly recommend that you read the entire article because it’s really interesting. It is three pages long on their site so I’m just going to pick out some interesting comments…
Anyway, when I walked into the room Omar asked me to sit down. He sat right across from me. He started talking about how the team was underperforming, how it needed to turn around.
He said it was time to make some changes, and I waited for him to talk about whacking Rick and Tommy, but he just kept talking, for a minute or two, maybe longer, about how the team was better than it was playing, about all the stories that were out there and the cloud hovering over the team.
As Omar went on and on, looking very uncomfortable, this weird chill started to course through by body. I could feel myself going cold. He kept talking, almost stammering, and the chill got worse.
Suddenly, it occurred to me that maybe he was talking about me. Maybe I was the one about to get whacked.
Finally, I stopped him. I looked right at him.
“Omar, are you firing me?” I asked. He looked away for a minute and then met my eyes. “Yeah, I’m going to make a move,” he said. “It’s a hard decision, but I have to make it.”
We started going back and forth a little about everything, but this wasn’t a time for any heated postmortems.
“You don’t have to say anything more, Omar,” I said. “I came here to win, and if you don’t feel I’m the guy to get that done, then it’s your right to make a change. I’m eternally grateful for the opportunity you gave me. I want you to know that.”
I stood up and shook his hand, told him I wished him and the team well. Then he handed me an envelope, a little parting gift, and told me to make sure I reviewed it with my agent, Ron Shapiro.
It was a copy of my Met contract that basically says I better not say anything detrimental about the team, or I might jeopardize the rest of the money I have coming to me.
Obviously, that was Willie’s version of actually getting fired. In this article, Randolph walks us through his entire tenure as a Mets manager. It was more like a closing statement to the fans. The Mets completely screwed up by firing him this way. I feel very bad for Willie and wish he was still the manager. Like I said before, I would rather have heard Omar admit how much he messed up by bringing in old guys that cannot contribute. I wish that Omar would bring in championship talent rather than saying that the team he assembled has it. I don’t want to hear the lies Mr. Minaya. I have already seen the core players (Beltran, Delgado, Reyes, and Wright) not be able to go deeper into the Playoffs in ‘07 than they did in ‘06. There didn’t even make the Playoffs in ‘07. I already saw this team play soft in ‘08 after the collapse in ‘07. Champions would play like they have somthing to prove regardless of who the manager is. What about this core is championship calibur Omar? I want Omar to be fired.
