Take A Load Off Annie -- And Put The Load Right On Willie

By Deb McIver
Posted Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Note: This column was written prior to Willie's mini-mound tirade at Ollie Perez in the sandwich game in D.C., and before the sweep of the Gnats by our Metsies this weekend. Think Willie snuck in here and read this column?

There’s been a lot of talk here at FU, and just about everywhere else lately, about what does or doesn’t make a good manager, whether the manager can or can’t be blamed for the team’s lack of success, and more particularly, whether Willie Randolph is, or isn’t, a good manager.

And talk has gone back and forth, and forth and back, and hither and yon, and yon and hither, and here and there, and everywhere, and pretty much everybody’s just about exhausted by now.

So, I invite you to take a load off, Annie – and put the load right on Willie, where it belongs!

We’ve all seen for ourselves the lack of spiritedness, the lack of hustle, the lethargic, listless, lackadaisical play of the 2007 Mets for some time now. Like, say, the last two months or so. The team has basically played about .500 ball during that time, and I don’t know about the rest of you, but it’s frustrating as snot to watch this level of play from this team game after game, series after series… after series. June’s lazy play became July’s listless play, became August’s lethargic play; the capper being, of course, the August 16 10-7 loss to the pathetic putrid and plundering Pirates, of all teams.

So I’m wondering….. what about it? How much of it is due to injuries, how much of it due to player ennui, and how much of it can and should fall squarely on the shoulders of one Willie Randolph?

I’ll be the first to say I wasn’t in favor of Willie’s hiring a scant few years ago. I, like many, felt that Willie’s having had interviewed for about 20 managerial jobs up to that point, with nary an offer, wasn’t a really good recommendation. And I, like many, felt that Willie might have simply been hired because the Mets wanted a young and inexperienced guy to “rubber stamp” Omar. And I, like many, wondered about Willie’s managerial qualifications, and whether or not he’d be the right man to lead the team.

But hire Willie they did, and being the good and loyal Mets fans that we all are, we sat back and gave Willie the opportunity to prove his mettle.

And his first year here (2005), he took the team to a respectable 83-79 finish, much improved from the last year under the much maligned (and deservedly so, may I add) Art Howe. Still working with many of the holdovers from the Steve Phillips Era, Willie certainly made headroads in the division and towards the future of the team.

Then, of course, came 2006, a year which saw the Mets finish 97-65, win the NL East, soundly defeat the Dodgers in the NLDS, only to fall to the Cardinals in a heartbreaking seventh game of the NLCS, a game which I don’t think to this day many of the Mets involved have ever gotten over. And some of the fans, either, I suspect.

And there were many positive things to take from Willie’s first two years as manager of the Mets. Aside from the win/loss success, and his taking the team to postseason in only his second year here, the team looked happy, positive and upbeat. There was an air of confidence and steadiness about Shea Stadium. There was a buzz. There was excitement. There was….well, there was everything that makes a baseball season exciting, fun, enjoyable to watch, to be around, to write about, and all that jazz.

Sure, there were a few grumbles. Paul LoDuca had his share of troubles with the New York media. Lastings Milledge had a few episodes of immaturity. But Willie seemed to take it all in stride, confidently guiding the Mets’ ship into port, time after time, up until that fateful Game 7 of the NLCS.

But everyone pretty much to a man or woman thought Willie had done a very good, if not great, job, and when he received his extension and raise, pretty much everyone was happy for him, and thought they were well deserved.

Then came 2007.

The Mets got off to a flying start, sweeping the Cardinals at the new Busch Stadium the first week of the season, and continued on to go 34-18 through May 31. But things were not all rosy. Around the middle of May, the injuries started piling up, and players were going down faster than the Titanic took on water.

And then the real trouble started.

Carlos Beltran didn’t do much after May, and his laundry list litany of injuries of various origin started seemingly creeping into his game. Many were questioning his commitment to the team, and wondering whether he was, indeed, a Shirley. Carlos Delgado looked as if he’d rather be anywhere than at Shea Stadium, something all too well reflected in his on-the-field game. He, too, was the subject of the Shirley Buzz. Shawn Green was, well, Shawn Green. David Wright had a couple of rough months there, and Jose Reyes was inconsistent with the bat. And once Alou went down, so did the entire bottom half of the Mets’ lineup. Despite starting pitching performances that were so far above and beyond anything the team could reasonably have expected before the season began, the bullpen struggled mightily (with the notable exception of Billy Wagner, but then again, this column isn’t about him), the offense sputtered and spat and revved up and wound down again and the whole thing became and stagnated at what it is right now - .500 baseball.

As if the various sundry injuries weren’t bad enough, there was the lingering smell of something not quite right with the team. The smiles were gone. The clubhouse camaraderie of prior Willie years seemed to have dissipated. For perhaps the first time since Willie’s arrival, there were rumors and buzzes and snippets of trouble in the clubhouse. Julio Franco, once thought to be the “rock” of the clubhouse, became disgruntled and seemed to be only too happy to spread that among his teammates, and was soon unceremoniously dumped from the roster. Jose Reyes looked a little miffed at Willie for pulling him out of a game for lack of hustle, something I don’t think we’d ever thought we’d see from Reyes. Willie seemed to ride Lastings Milledge like an old motorbike. Paul LoDuca, rumor has it, threatened to “punch” Willie if he wasn’t put in to catch what turned out to be Glavine’s 300th win. Guys moved on and off the disabled list as if it were a board game gone wrong. Heartaches by the numbers, troubles by the score….

And the play on the field seemed to reflect that all was not well in Metville.

And while Willie certainly cannot be blamed for the rampant and various injuries the team has suffered this year, or for the content of his bullpen, how about the level of play the Mets have exhibited this year?

Take a load off, Annie, and put the load right on Willie.

The one area where criticism of a manager is not only legitimate, but warranted, is the level of a team's play. For a couple of years now, I have heard how Willie will not tolerate a level of play such as this. I’ve heard him go on and on about how “his guys” play hard hard for him.

Well, they’re not, and haven’t been for awhile.

And I’m waiting for Willie to begin not tolerating it.

For a couple of years now, I have heard how Willie is quiet and even-keeled, but willing to pop the cork, so to speak, when necessary.

Well, I’m waiting for Willie to pop the cork. Because it’s necessary; it’s way overdue necessary.

And this year, I’m hearing things out of Willie’s mouth I never thought I’d hear. Why, any day now, I’m expecting to hear the Art Howe Stock Quote of The Day, which, dear readers, I’ll bet many of you could rattle off no problemo – yes, that’s the one I mean – the dreaded “we battled.”

What the hell that means in the entire scheme of things, I have no clue. But I’ve seen it on the tip of Willie’s tongue, lurking there like its evil twin, “we played hard,” dying to come out, pleading “oh, pick me, pick me, PICK ME!!!!!!”

Take a load off, Annie, and put the load right on Willie.

Because it’s time, Willie. It’s time you took the load. It’s time you put your mouth where your money is. Don't let Steve Phillips do all the rallying for you....

It’s time you did something. Hell, it’s beyond time.