The Final 9

NEW YORK (AP) — Mets owner Fred Wilpon is praising Willie Randolph's performance as manager but agreed with general manager Omar Minaya's decision to replace him last week.

"I think Willie did a good job. I think that the results the last say 14 months were not up to what we thought it had to be," Wilpon said. "What Omar finally decided was that he had to make that change."

Randolph was fired on June 17 with the Mets at 34-35. New York has gone 3-2 under new manager Jerry Manuel.

"Obviously, we've been playing well in the last few games," Wilpon said.

Wilpon said Minaya made the initial decision to fire Randolph on Sunday, after a doubleheader split against Texas. After speaking with ownership, Minaya made the final call Monday.

Mets owner Fred Wilpon: `Willie did a good job'....

NEW YORK — Willie Randolph said a "weird chill" went through him once he realized general manager Omar Minaya was about to oust him as manager of the New York Mets in a California hotel suite.

"'Omar, are you firing me?' I asked. He looked away for a minute and then met my eyes."

Randolph wrote a first-person account of his dismissal in Friday's Daily News, under the front-page headline "How They Fired Me!"

Randolph and Minaya spoke after the Mets defeated the Los Angeles Angels on Monday night. Randolph expected the conversation to be about the possible firing of pitching coach Rick Peterson and first base coach Tom Nieto.

"Omar went on and on, looking very uncomfortable, this weird chill started to course through my body. I could feel myself going cold. He kept talking, almost stammering, and the chill got worse," Randolph wrote. "Suddenly, it occurred to me that maybe he was talking about me. Maybe I was the one about to get whacked."

Randolph said the two spoke two days before the flight to California and he was reassured. But the general manager finally acknowledged what he was going to do when they talked in the hotel.

"Yeah, I'm going to make a move," he said. "It's a hard decision, but I have to make it."

Former New York manager Willie Randolph writes about how Mets fired him....

By WILLIAM C. RHODEN

The five-hour long flight from Los Angeles to New York provides ample time for introspection. Especially if you’re Willie Randolph, now the former Mets manager.

Dismissed from his job after the Mets beat the Los Angeles Angels on Monday in Anaheim, Randolph arrived back home in New Jersey late Tuesday, his head still swimming from being told by Mets General Manager Omar Minaya that he was no longer the manager of the Mets.

In a telephone interview Tuesday night, Randolph said he remained stunned by the dismissal, which took place in Minaya’s hotel room. “I didn’t see this coming,” he said. “When I spoke to Omar the day before I knew there might be some changes, but I got the feeling I was safe.”

Randolph Implies He Was Misled

By BEN SHPIGEL

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Just 17 months ago, Willie Randolph received a new multi-million dollar contract, a reward for invigorating a franchise and guiding the Mets to their first division title in 18 years and close to a victory in the World Series.

He has since presided over one of the greatest collapses in baseball history, from which this year’s team has yet to recover.

Nearly three months into another disappointing season, the Mets announced early Tuesday morning that they had fired Randolph, the first African-American to manage in New York, after three and a half years as manager, and replaced him with the bench coach Jerry Manuel.

STORY....

Jim Baumbach

The Mets sure do seem as if they want to fire Willie Randolph. The silence from upper management in recent days all but confirms that. If they weren't going to, wouldn't you think they'd tell Randolph that, to make this all go away? Instead we're left to believe this waiting game means this: they're trying to figure out the logistics: When will they do? How will they do? Where will they do it?

General manager Omar Minaya has never fired a manager, as pointed out today by colleague Ken Davidoff. Thus, there's no track record there to go by.

Fear not, Mets, we're here to help. We've gone through the last two decades of your history and looked up the details behind the firings of your past six managers. Hopefully these reminders will spark you to make a decision - one way or the other - because this waiting game is silly and is good for no one.

STORY....

By BEN SHPIGEL

Willie Randolph hardly knew him when he added Jerry Manuel to his coaching staff in 2004, before his first season as manager. If Randolph were to be fired, though, Manuel would be asked to take over. Manuel would love to manage in the major leagues again, but this is not how he wants to get that chance.

“It’s difficult because of my relationship with Willie,” said Manuel, the team’s bench coach, who managed the Chicago White Sox from 1998 to 2003. “Everyone goes through it at some point in their career. We all handle it differently and draw on different things to keep us going. I think he’s doing O.K.”

The Mets’ game Saturday night against the Texas Rangers was rained out and rescheduled as part of a doubleheader Sunday, giving the team’s owners and General Manager Omar Minaya two opportunities to evaluate Randolph’s status. The first game Sunday is to begin at 1:10 p.m., with John Maine facing Kevin Millwood; Pedro Martínez is to oppose Kason Gabbard in the second game, starting about 30 minutes after the end of the opener.

STORY....

DENVER -- With his boss in town for some crisis management and a statement of support, Mets manager Willie Randolph may be having trouble distinguishing the fire from frying pan.
It was not immediately evident to Randolph on Saturday whether he should see general manager Omar Minaya's presence as the show of support Minaya claimed it to be or the prelude to an ominous overture.

"I thought I saw him in the back, sharpening his machete, so I don't know if that makes me feel too good," Randolph joked before the middle game of a three-game set with the Rockies. "He saw me coming, and he kind of slipped it in his back pocket. I don't know if that makes me feel any better."

And although Minaya's statements to the media during Friday night's extra-innings loss to Colorado presented an image of a unified front among the Mets brass, Randolph said that Minaya had not expressed those sentiments to him in person, with their conversations limited to "just chit chat like we usually do."

STORY....