A Sad Day in NY as Willie Randolph is fired in the early hours of the morning

Most of New Yorkers woke up on June 17th to the news that Wille Randolph had been released of his managing duties. The timing of the move was a shock to me, not because it happened at 3 am eastern time, but because team had been showing signs of life in the week leading up to the firing.

If Billy Wagner had pitched to his capabilities the team would have won 6 of their last 8, and in one of the losses, the team scored 5 runs in the last two innings and had a runner thrown at the plate to lose by one. So the team was showing signs of life and were showing some fight, something that hadn't been seen in almost a year.

Maybe this was an aberration, but it seemed like a bad time to make a change especially when there were so many other chances to make the change earlier.

That being said, the Mets were playing in a circus-like environment for a few weeks now. The firing should have happened earlier, or Willie should have received a stronger vote of confidence from the front office.

It's also hard to believe that the decision was all Omar Minaya's, especially since Fred Wilpon has always had the "Buck Stops Here" mentality, in regards to his final decision on all Mets moves. Wilpon even has the slogan on his office door.

A lot was made that the Wilpons (Fred and Jeff) wanted Willie gone after the historic collapse last season, so he was basically a dead man walking unless the team got off to a hot start. Obviously, they didn't.

Another person in the front office who wasn't a fan of Willie was Tony Bernazard. He was a big Manny Acta fan and whenever the Nationals came to town the two would be very buddy-buddy.

In the off-season the Mets talked about keeping Bernazard away from the locker room so he couldn't distract Willie, but that seemed to disappear as this season wore on showing a sign that Willie was in trouble.

A lot of "what-ifs?" could be made about Willie's time here. If Duaner Sanchez hadn't got in the cab accident they would have kept Xavier Nady (but wouldn't have had Oliver Perez). It was also said they had a trade in place for Roy Oswalt.

With those two, especially Sanchez in that 7th game vs. the Cardinals, an argument could have been made that they would've won the World Series and who knows from thereafter. The sad thing is, Willie Randolph's tenure will be remembered for the things he didn't do, instead of the things he did.