Randolph, Peterson speak
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- June
- 17
Willie Randolph said he did not know he would be fired when he left the stadium last night.
“No,” Randolph said as he walked out of the Mets’ team hotel this morning. “I was stunned. … This is a very difficult time.”
After several weeks of twisting in the wind, Randolph was fired in the team hotel by general manager Omar Minaya several hours after the Mets had beaten the Los Angeles Angels, 9-6, for their third victory in four games.
“I am very disappointed that I was not able to fulfill my dream of winning a world championship with this team,” Randolph said. “I will miss my players.”
Randolph did not take questions about the manner in which he was fired.
Pitching coach Rick Peterson, who along with first base coach Tom Nieto was also fired, took no questions but issued a statement thanking owner Fred Wilpon and son Jeff Wilpon, the club’s chief operating officer.
“I appreciated the opportunity (the Wilpons) gave me,” Peterson said. “They welcomed me into their home, and sometimes homes go through renovations.
“I am the hardwood floor that is being ripped out and replaced with Tuscany tile. Hopefully, the Tuscany tile will do better than the hardwood tile. … I am walking out of here in peace.”
Minaya will address the media this afternoon in a press conference at the stadium.
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on Tuesday, June 17th, 2008 at 2:22 pm by John Delcos.
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Alright, now that the albatrosses, Randolph and Peterson, not to mention Nieto (probably the worst of the lot, what a negative force that guy was!) are gone, let the winning streak begin. The Phils are quaking in their cleats right now. They tried not to let on, but there were whispers that the Phillies players were saying things like “I hope the Mets don’t get rid of Nieto, because they’d be unstoppable then”.
Nieto was fired b/c he was a Willie guy. Peterson was fired b/c the org thought that he was always looking to get more attention than he deserved. Plus he was not brought in by Omar.
But speaking of peterson. I guess those comments by glavine that he would suddenly burst into a discussion on an inane subject while they were working on his mechanics (butterflies flapping around for ex) goes right along w/his comments he made here. Maybe the Giants will pick him up as a special instructor for Zito.
Man, I will miss The Jacket. No question, best metaphors of any pitching coach in history. Apparently, though, the Wilpons decided that his ketchup couldn’t save the taste of their melting ice cream.
Gotta give Peterson credit his quotes made me laugh.
His quotes also show how absurd this whole thing has been.
Honestly he is a pitching coach for a professional baseball team, not a person responsible for anything that is really
important in life.
How does Minaya still have a job? It doesn’t bother anyone that the guy who employed all these coaches and put together this team is basically being given a free pass for this? Unreal. And how unprofessional can you get letting these guys fly to LA, win a game, and then firing them? The Mets should be ashamed of themselves and the PR hit that they’re taking is well deserved.
Too bad Peterson probably does not know whole lot about design because he would make a great professor in an art related subject.
Too bad Op and Heilman are too much of a couple of knuckleheads to understand any of the mental management theories taught by this fella.
I think Mikey was probably starting to pick up on Peterson’s ideas about spiritual harmony.. hopefully he holds on to it…
For the record I don’t think it was a good idea to let go Peterson. I could see why they did it, but I don’t think it was a good idea.
I think Peterson needs to dummy up with the youngsters..That deep thinking is over their heads..They are pitchers, not artists and designers..
I have to wonder about Manuel as the choice to replace Willie. In terms of personality, they are very similar.When the Giants fired Jim Fassel, they replaced him w/ his polar opposite in Tom Coughlin…that worked out pretty well.Why replace one laid back coach w/ another??
http://www.myteamrivals.typepad.com/mr_mets_daily
I wonder if Omar’s firing of the Jacket went something like this…
Omar: “Do you like fried chicken?”
Jacket: “Yes.”
Omar: “Do you like peanut butter?”
Jacket: “Yes.”
Omar: “Would you put peanut butter on fried chicken?”
Jacket: “No.”
Omar: “That’s what you’re doing. You’re fired. Don’t let the hotel revolving door hit you on the @$$ on the way out.”
Gil, chicken with peanut butter sauce is excellent! Check out chicken satay next time you go to a Thai restaurant.
i think the answer to the poll is a combination of all of those answers. the reality is it’s everyone’s mess, and thus they all deserve blame.
this is a sad and embarrassing day to be a mets fan, and it pains me to have to watch all this unfold.
that said, the cynic in me thinks that it was a brilliant move because all of the coverage is about how badly the mets as an organization handled this, as opposed to where the focus should be…on how bad/underperforming a team this has been over basically the last calendar year.
perhaps omar shrewdly figured that he’d rather take the heat for firing willie in the middle of the night rather than more heat for why willie was managing an awfully assembled team of ballplayers.
Randolph deserves very little of the blame. You need your players to play and play well. If Alou and Pedro (and El Duque) had been healthy and if Delgado didn’t totally stink, the Mets would be fine.
I feel bad for this group because every expects so much more out of them than its really reasonable to expect. Most of the players on the team ARE performing in line with their projections. Its the guys who aren’t and the guys who are injured that are ‘at fault’ which really means Omar is at fault.
Jerry Manuel is not any better than Willie. I say bring back Willie.
mlj: I would doubt that Manuel is anything else but a fill in until the end of the season when the Mets do a managerial search. The only way he has a chance to manage next year is if he turns the team around this year and they make the playoffs. Plus you’re not even at the middle of the season yet, so it’s doubtful they would give the job to anyone else but someone who is already on the staff. And at the very worst in Manuel you have a manager that won a Mgr of the Year award and someone who led his team to the playoffs before.
Manager of the Year is like “Employee of the Month”. Its a stupid feel-good award that is just given to the manager of a team that outperforms expectations. Every year some team does that. It in no way indicates managerial excellence.
Rick Peterson has taken off for Vermont where he’ll be the personal ‘pitching coach’ of Bill ‘Spaceman’ Lee. Together they’ll be working on a method of coaching pitchers that combines elements of Rastafarianism with the Peterson mechanical method.
In terms of this upcoming press conference, John, I’d be interested in hearing Omar’s response as to why he thinks the team underachieved this year.
Mets logic in naming Manuel is they wanted someone who has observed the season first hand.
If Michael Kay’s sources are correct, Tony Bernazzaed told Randolph to see Minaya at the hote;. looking down and unhappy Minaya said Peterson and Nieto were fired. When Randolph asked if there was anything else, Minaya repiked Randolph was gone.
Well, I watched the press conference, part of it.All we can do now is hope Jerry and the boys find a way to turn things around quickly.By the way, if anybody believes Omar’s assertion that he decided only after he got to LA to fire Willie,lets talk about a bridge I have for sale.
http://www.myteamrivals.typepad.com/mr_mets_daily
TAylor “Jerry Manuel is not any better than Willie. I say bring back Willie.” Is not a knowable statement at this point. I liked some of the things he had to say. Let’s give the benefit of the doubt for Manuel.
Omar is another story. He gets no benefit now, simply the team must perform.
I think we can all agree this was handled badly.
Peterson had to go because the staff was not pitching well. Listening to his comments made me think that as good as he may be he may have problems talking to his players. Not everyone responds to deep thinking. Sometimes subtlety just doesn’t exist for the subject of the lecture.
Willie had to go because the team has no direction. But this should have been handled much better. The Mets are idiots.
Just saw Jose walk off the field and the new mgr go after him to talk. I don’t think Willie would have done that so perhaps there is hope yet.
How low can you go? No doubt that the way it was handled was a disaster. A deadline should have been imposed on Willie for turning the team around, not a day by day situation. Of course it was a distraction to the players. If rumors are right that Willie and Tony Bernazzaed did not get along,which makes sense being that Bernazzaed has the front office backup I’m not surprised at the whole thing. However, a clean up from the top down starting with Omar seems the thing to do even at a cost of a post season.Build up for next year for a united team with fire and chemistry.