Eureka?

By Metstradamus
Posted Friday, May 23, 2008

I apologize right off the bat ... because after the week that was, I'm sure you're Willie'd out right now.

But consider everything that's been swirling around Willie Randolph for the last week ... and take into account everything. Not just the articles, but the demeanor that he's all of a sudden adopted when he speaks directly to you. And ask yourself this: Is this a man trying to save his job?

Or is this a man who knows he's dead meat and is trying to expedite the process?

I have to be honest, I'm not so sure anymore. It hit me like one of those "eureka" moments. Maybe Willie Randolph is speeding up his demise. Because on the surface, all of the things that Willie is saying in defense of himself are telling you "it's not my fault! Please accept me! I've tried really hard to be angry and animated! Look, I'm angry and animated right now!" Sounds like somebody trying to save his job, no?

But let me refresh your memory on some of the points of the O' Connor article:

"If you look at my body of work since I've been here," Randolph said, "I'm proud of that, because prior to that Mets fans were hiding. You couldn't even find them ... The season's just starting and you're booing my guys already? You're booing your team?' " (...)

"Why [isn't] SNY shooting me when I'm ready to go down the dugout clapping my hands and patting guys on the butt, schooling them during the game? I'm on the top step every game. ... Why don't you show that side of me so people can say, 'Wow, jeez, Willie's fiery'? ... You watch any manager in baseball, you see him look like a bump on the log sitting there. They don't move, they don't talk. I'm as animated and as demonstrative and as involved and as intense as any manager in baseball." (...)

"Asked directly if he believes black managers are held to different standards than their white counterparts, Randolph said: "I don't know how to put my finger on it, but I think there's something there. Herman Edwards did pretty well here and he won a couple of playoff [games], and they were pretty hard on Herm. Isiah [Thomas] didn't do a great job, but they beat up Isiah pretty good. ... I don't know if people are used to a certain figurehead. There's something weird about it."

Is this stuff that a manager of a baseball team in New York City ... one that's played, coached and managed here for the better part of thirty years ... willingly says to a reporter with a tape recorder because he thinks it's off the record? Although these comments are a far cry from the good ol' days of Cubs' manager Lee Elia slamming his own fans, these aren't things you say to a reporter while your job is in a tenuous state ... unless you are asking the Wilpons to perform some sort of baseball euthanasia on your New York managerial career.

Maybe I'm way off. Maybe I should just believe this at face value. But in this atmosphere that is not only creating a disconnect between the team and its fans, but is also cultivating the birth of the "Flushing Zoo." I'm not sure of anything anymore.