New York Mets: The Changing of the Guard

Since the collapse last September, Mets fans have been looking for something, anything, that will make them forget about what happened, something that will give them a reason to look forward with pride and optimism.

The 2008 season started off with a bang. The Mets made a trade for the premier pitcher in all of baseball, Johann Santana. This led to many baseball minds prognosticating that the Mets were the team to beat in the National League.

Sure, the team had its weaknesses, specifically the advanced age of left fielder Moises Alou, first baseman Carlos Delgado, and starting pitchers Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez and Pedro Martinez, but the rotation and the sheer joy of youth that players like Jose Reyes and David Wright brought to the team seemingly made up for these shortcomings, at least on paper.

When the team started the season slowly, many fans began to question the motivational skills of the manager, Willie Randolph. In the press, "unnamed sources" began to speculate on his immediate future with the team.

There were many fans, myself included, that wondered why the team's management made the decision to keep Randolph on after the team lost a seven-game lead in the division with 17 games remaining, but in the end, it was their decision, not ours, and we lived with it.

On Monday, May 19, after a two-game sweep of the cross-town Yankees, the Bergen Record said that SNY, the cable network owned by the Mets, was showing Randolph in a negative light, saying that he was not emotional enough.

When asked why some manager's calmness in the dugout was praised as a virtue, yet his was seen as not fiery enough, Randolph was quoted as saying "Is it racial? Huh, it smells a little bit".

This was perceived as an insult to the network, the team, and to a large point, the fan base. To many, including the Mets' management, this was the final straw.

Randolph met with team management on Wednesday, May 21 and apologized, but the damage had been done. From that point on, the Wilpon family, owners of the Mets, and Omar Minaya, the general manager, expressed veiled confidence in Randolph, and the "Willie Watch" was on.

Newspapers ran articles on a daily basis, fueled with speculation, not that Randolph's job was in jeopardy, but stating that it was only a matter of time until he was fired.

On June 16, after completing a 9-6 victory over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Randolph was summoned to the general manager's hotel room, along with his pitching coach, Rick Peterson, and the team's first-base coach, Tom Nieto. The three were then summarily relieved of their duties with the team.

There are many who say that the timing of Randolph's firing was bad, even an embarrassment. However, firing a manager is something that generally happens either on an off day or after a game, and due to the fact that this game was played on the west coast, "after the game" meant that it happened at approximately 3:11 AM EST.

Randolph, and the issues that surround him, had become a distraction to an under performing team with one of the highest payrolls in Major League Baseball.

Many fans and writers feel that the timing was wrong, but few agree that this was not the right decision. Minaya was quoted in a press conference as saying that he made the decision, and he fired Randolph after the game as a sign of respect, not disrespect, as many have seen it.

In Minaya's opinion, once the decision was made, regardless of the timing, it was his duty to inform the manager.

Randolph was replaced by his bench coach, Jerry Manuel, on an interim basis. Manuel was the AL Manager of the Year in 2000, and brings with him experience, personality, and candor.

Based on his introductory press conference, he seems like the kind of manager who will do what he feels is right for the team, meaning that he will most likely shuffle the lineup, rest players if he feels that they need it, and focus on the pitching staff as a whole, including the relief pitchers, who have been an issue all season long.

I look forward to seeing how Manuel will handle the personalities and challenges that this team shows. He was tested immediately by Jose Reyes, who, after getting a single in the first at-bat of last night's game, appeared to injure his hamstring. When Manuel went to take him out of the game, Reyes threw his batting helmet in disgust.

Manuel followed Reyes into the clubhouse and returned a few minutes later, followed by Reyes, who appeared to have gotten the message. This was Manuel's first test as the Mets' manager, and he passed, in my opinion, by showing the team that he is in charge.

For many fans, myself included, Willie Randolph will be remembered more for the positive things that he did in his time with the Mets than he will be for the negative things. He took a team in disarray and brought it back to respectability. He brought his team within one game of the 2006 World Series, and he was about as friendly and polite a person as there is in the sport.

Sure, Randolph had his downsides. He couldn't master the double switch, he left pitchers in the game one batter too long on a regular basis, relied on veterans almost to a fault, while keeping young players on the bench, and he went with his "gut" more times than I would have liked to have seen. But, overall, he will be remembered with a smile, at least by this fan.

I wish you good luck and good fortune, Willie Randolph, and thank you for what you brought to my team in the time that you served here. I am sure that you will find another position in baseball, even if it is not a manager's position.