Fired Willie

As of around 3 am Eastern Daylight Time this morning, Willie Randolph is no longer the manager of the New York Mets.

Two ex-Mets

After a win? Now that hardly seems fair.

A win, no less, in which Aaron Heilman struck out Vladimir Guerrero and Torii Hunter with two men on in the seventh to keep another lost lead from fully slipping away. A day after Robinson Cancel gave Willie a temporary reprieve, even the embattled Heilman couldn't save his erstwhile manager.

I should be happy, right? I'm just not so sure if this even matters. Rick Peterson and Tom Nieto are also gone, although Nieto in this situation is pretty much an extra in Omar Minaya's drama. And it's all even unfolding under the bright lights of Hollywood! Well, Anaheim, but Arte Moreno's not counting, so why should you?

But I'll refer back to the point I made yesterday: this Mets team has a few more problems than anything Willie's done. If Omar Minaya's got any guts he'll release Carlos Delgado and Moises Alou tomorrow, and follow through on his four years old pledge to make the Mets younger, faster, and more sustainable. I don't know, however. His bungling of the Willie situation would lead me to believe Delgado and Alou aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

Did it just occur to Omar last night that Willie deserved to go? Not last October 1, or at any time in the last three weeks? Was Omar waiting for the right moment? If he was, I dare say that it's not right to fly the manager of a New York team out to California to tell him he's lost his job, after his team wins. If Willie was going to go, he should have gone before the Rangers' series, before game 2 yesterday, or after the next Mets' loss. Or at any time in last three weeks/8 months. The Mets really screwed this up, and despite calling repeatedly for his head this season, I actually feel bad for Willie Randolph.

On the bright side, we can write Rick Peterson's obituary as Mets' pitching coach. He catches a lot of flak for the Victor Zambrano "10 minutes" claim, but in a cleaning house like the Mets just performed, he had to go too. He's been here too long, and the Mets aren't pitching well enough. Plus the guy's full of it and thinks he knows everything. I'm ready to see what Dan Wharthen can do. As for Tom Nieto: Tommy, it seems we hardly knew ya. Any words of wisdom for Ken Oberkfell?

Jerry Manuel will take over as manager, with Oberkfell (formerly the AAA manager) coaching first and Wharthen (formerly the AAA pitching coach) assuming the same duties at the major league level. Luis Aguayo, the New Orleans team's field coordinator, will step in as Manuel's bench coach.

Jerry, Jerry, Jerry! We'll see what Manuel can do to fix the mess...



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