No Surprise If Ax Falls on Willie Today

by: Joe McDonald | Publisher and Editor-in-Chief | Monday, May 26, 2008



Eighteen years ago this coming Thursday, the Mets decided to jolt their struggling, but highly regarded club by firing manager Davey Johnson and replacing him with coach and former shortstop Buddy Harrelson.

“Buddy Ball” delivered a 71-49 record during the 1990 season vaulting the Mets back into the pennant race by abandoning the Earl Weaver school of managing employed by Johnson and playing more fundamental baseball. It didn’t matter that Johnson had the most wins by a manager in team history or led the Mets to their second championship, because baseball is a what have you done for me lately industry, and his 20-22 record through 42 games just wasn’t cutting it.

So today, Willie Randolph, also two games under .500, shouldn’t be surprised if Fred and Jeff Wilpon decide to end his tenure with the club after their meeting later this afternoon. Following another horrible loss, the team is still looking lifeless, and maybe a change is in order since the Mets went 1-6 on this road trip, outside of the 718 area code.

The players, though, are telling the reporters in Denver the right things, because ultimately it’s their fault for the team’s woes.

“We're not getting it done,” said the iconoclastic Billy Wagner to the Met beat reporters. “It's not Willie. I wish Willie could strap on a uniform. He's been on championship teams. He knows how to lead a championship team.”

Fair enough, but Randolph’s time to prove his winning pedigree may have come and gone. With the Mets back home for the next week, if Randolph is in the dugout he will have to go through the type of anger reserved for coaches at Madison Square Garden. Every run from Florida or every Met error tonight will have chants of “Fire Willie” coming down from the upper deck at Shea. It will make a difficult situation even more intolerable, as the Mets try to build some sort of winning streak.

You can’t blame the Wilpons for making a change today. Winning is the bottom line in New York and Randolph should know that from his tenure as a player with the Yankees. Managers came and went in the 1970s and ‘80s in the Bronx. This is nothing different.

And it’s not personal. He’s a fine man, but many good men held managerial or coaching positions and failed. But those in that small coaching fraternity knows one day it will be their turn to get fired or let go. After Isiah Thomas was a relieved of his duties last month, his counterpart at the Garden, Rangers coach Tom Renney had this to say: “It’s always unfortunate when people that are passionate about the game and have a level of competence to work at it lose their jobs. But naturally that’s part of the business. I don’t have my head so far up the sand that I think for a minute it won’t happen to me at some point in time. I’m OK with that.”

Randolph seems to be fine with it too after joking with reporters over the weekend. Two seasons ago, he was the toast of the town, but now his time just may be at the end. It happened to Joe Torre. It happened to Bobby Valentine. And it even happened to Davey Johnson.

Today, it may happen to Willie Randolph.