Between the Seams | Willie Randolph fired by Mets after Monday’s win
ANAHEIM, Calif. — Once he decided to fire Willie Randolph, New York Mets general manager Omar Minaya caught a flight to the West Coast, went to the team inn and waited to deliver the word in person.
“Eye to eye,” Minaya said Tuesday. “It was done quick.”
Even if it seemed to take at all times.
The late-night hit came as chants of “Fire Willie!” grew louder at Shea Stadium and forward New York’s sports talk radio stations. Yet when Minaya did that, the news shocked most everyone — fans, media and even Randolph.
“I’m really stunned by it,” the ex-manager said Tuesday. “I was surprised by dint of. it.”
Bench coach Jerry Manuel, a former American League Manager of the Year toward the Chicago White Sox, will manage the Mets for the rest of the year.
Randolph, 53, became the first manager in the majors to be fired this season, the move announced in some e-mail at 12:14 a.m. PDT Tuesday. He was dismissed by the Mets below .500, still wobbling from last year’s colossal collapse and speculation about his job status growing every day.
The tension went on “alienated too long,” Minaya declared. “It was not candid to the team, it was not fair to Willie Randolph, it was not fair to the organization.”
Pitching coach Rick Peterson and first-base coach Tom Nieto also were fired.
Minaya said he made the judgment Monday and stressed it was his alone. He met with Randolph after that night’s 9-6 win over the Los Angeles Angels left the Mets at 34-35.
“I think he was resigned to it,” Minaya said. “When wholly is declared and done, I think he was relieved.”
Minaya uttered it would have been discourteous to fire a manager while he was still in uniform. Instead, Minaya said he waited to use for conversing to Randolph let us go. from the ballpark.
