Mets Give Randolph Boot
AP
Posted: 2008-06-17 06:04:09
ANAHEIM, Calif. (June 17) – Willie Randolph is out as manager of the New York Mets, fired in the middle of the night 2 1/2 months into a disappointing season that has followed the team’s colossal collapse last September.
Bench coach Jerry Manuel takes over on an interim basis for Randolph, who led the Mets to within one win of the 2006 World Series. They got off to a strong start again last year but plummeted down the stretch and have been unable to rebound.
A preseason favorite to win the NL pennant, the $138 million Mets (34-35) had won two in a row when Randolph was let go early Tuesday morning – making him the first major league manager to get fired this season.
Pitching coach Rick Peterson and first base coach Tom Nieto also were dismissed in an enormous overhaul that was revealed in a fact-of-the-matter Mets news release at a stunning time – about 12:15 a.m. PDT, nearly two hours after New York’s 9-6 victory over the Los Angeles Angels.
Here is the full story.
I am a Mets fan and I like Willie Randolph. However, in the real business world, if you don’t perform, you are let go. You are accountable for your performance. Unfortunately, this is not how it works with the USCF. I have been pushing for a quality control system within the USCF to deaf ears. Chess politicians do not want to assess efficiency and performance. They would do everything possible to protect the status quo and insiders. This is one of the reasons why the USCF has failed miserably year after year and this is why we lost money in 9 of the last 11 years.
Mets have injury problems. Pedro is not so good. I have given up on the USCF long ago. They’re hopeless.
Sometimes people need time to build up a team. It’s absurd to immediately fire someone with a team with many injuries.
The Mets cut off their Willie.
It sounds very painful.
Your preaching to the choir Susan.
An interesting set of problems has been set up here, perhaps unwittingly.
I agree with SP that people should be held accountable. But I think a lot of the reasons for the Mets’ collapse comes from whoever owns the team (I don’t know who at this point). There are a number of sports owners and corporate heads whom I would show the door to and push them out of it. But I can’t. At least in the USCF, Executive Board members can fail in their election bids. I don’t particularly like “slates” of candidates for any executive-board positions (in any corporation) becuause, in USCF’s case and probably a lot of others, it leads to factionalization and nothing getting done because one faction steadfastly opposes the other on just about anything. Then who do you hold accountable? Every last member on the board and throw them all out? Logically that is the only way to solve the problem.
If the Mets were losing money hand over fist, I could understand their edginess a little better. But I don’t think they do. Television revenues, concession revenues, ticket sales and merchandising tie-ins guarantee them money in bushel baskets.
Finally, in many operations that DO lose money, the fault lies with the person who founded or is sole chief executive of the operation and who runs it into the ground. I’ve worked for some people like that, where they engage in personal grudges and crusades while I sit back very bewildered and eventually very angry at the boss for draining the bank account and making it impossible for me to work there because they can’t pay me.
Peter Harris
Lubbock, Texas