Two September collapses followed by a summer of long-term injuries to key components may be the big picture but the smaller one – perhaps an even more glaring one – is that neither Willie Randolph or Jerry Manuel were able to get the best out of their players. Heck, they weren’t even able to get a full day’s pay out of the majority of the locker room on a daily basis.

To say the Mets gave up before they were mathematically eliminated this past summer is like saying reality television has become a bore. Even the young replacement players for the banged-up veterans appeared as if they were just going through the motions. Mental and physical errors made the season reminiscent of the 1962 Mets, with the main difference that they were loveable losers while these imposters were down right deplorable.

Now we have the pleasure of seeing it all over again for the fourth consecutive season. Jeff Wilpon has already announced that both Manuel and general manager Omar Minaya will be back.

The core group of players that have all been either a part of the collapses, the injured or unable to take charge when needed may all return, as well. The one question mark is first baseman Carlos Delgado, who is a Type B free agent after his contract ran out while he was on the disabled list.

The 37-year-old underwent hip surgery back on May 19 and left a huge hole not only at his position but also as the Mets’ only real power threat, the team had a popgun offense. Delgado then strained an oblique muscle while rehabbing and that put him on the shelf for good. Not exactly much of an endorsement for his conditioning.

Now Delgado has stated that he will be playing winter baseball in his native Puerto Rico to salvage what may be a career nearing its end. If he shows that he can still consistently hit the ball out, the Mets may offer him a one-year deal with incentives. But has the front office taken into consideration that a veteran such as Delgado has been a part of both the 2007 and 2008 collapses and never has taken a step up to become a team leader?

While we’re on the subject of players who have no desire to be in the driver’s seat, let us bring David Wright into the mix. The young third sacker is certainly talented and a model citizen but had the perfect opportunity in 2009 to become Mr. Met. He certainly did not do that and actually took a few steps back. He also has shown that he is a singles and doubles hitter at a power position, more alarming especially since the Mets lacked a big stick everywhere else in their line-up. His home run total (10) was reminiscent of a utility player.

Carlos Beltran did his best to play through pain but still had to succumb to missing a good amount of time due to a bum right knee. But he also is a ‘stand behind someone else’ type of person. He is not a take-charge guy by any means, even though he gets paid like one. That was one intangible that Minaya did not seem to think or care about when he threw boatloads of money at the free agent centerfielder, who did his best to take less from the cross-town Yankees before settling on the Mets.

And the last of the fearsome foursome? None other than Jose Reyes, who has made a career out of committing rookie mistakes year after year. Bad habits such as not running out ground balls or pop ups and horrendous base running mistakes has definitely rubbed off on some of the younger players on the team.

What needed to be done was not and Manuel seemed more like a substitute high school teacher than a major league manager. Basic fundamentals that are a part of spring training were botched up through Game 162. Inexcusable to say the least, but management seems to be content with him as the field boss because he is the furthest thing from controversial. The image-conscious Mets love to remain squeaky clean, even to a fault.

While the outcome of 2010 may be predictable wit the Mets, their excuse of what went wrong will not be as easy.

With the Rangers continuing to collapse and seeking some sort of bailout, they may want to look to Queens for their answer. Because they have become the hockey version of the New York Mets, complete with a damning part of their game, a coach twisting in the wind, disinterested players, and an untouchable general manager.

Like the Mets, the games have become almost scripted with a pattern developing every night. Like the Mets frustration has set in, as Henrik Lundqvist has started to sound like David Wright did in September.

And like the Mets, they have their coach on a rope, with the team teetering on to keeping him or firing him and moving on.

The similarities are well…Amazin.

First, there’s the glaring hole in each team’s  game. Whereas the Mets had their bullpen, the Rangers can’t solve their power play. It was almost comical last summer were no possible win was safe at Shea as the arsonists in the ‘pen, burned away every lead.

Defense actually isn’t the problem for these Rangers. It’s actually quite the opposite. Down two goals, then forget it, the game is over.  If they do score, they tend to give it up very quickly. Then there’s the power play, and no, there’s no truth to the rumor that Glen Sather is trying to lobby the league to allow teams to decline penalties.

The lack of scoring has the Rangers  2-7-3 in their last 11 games, which has put Tom Renney on the firing line. Although the Rangers won’t publically acknowledge the coach’s status,  Willie Watch has quickly morphed into Tom Watch over the past few weeks.

It’s gotten so bad Renney is starting to sound like Willie Randolph. “How well did you think we played tonight?,” Renney inquired back when he was asked about the team’s play. “I thought we played hard.  Anything drastic is to go outside of what the team’s needs are right now. We are going to continue to play hard, stay the course and go after wins.”

Over his tenure, Renney has been more media friendly than Randolph, who treated press conferences like hostage negotiations. But the Rangers coach has become more defensive and is sounding more and more like a No. 12 is on his back.

And his status could change every day. The longer it takes, the deeper the hole for the club, although if Renney does get fired, it probably won’t happen at 3 a.m.

But if he is on the firing line, you have to wonder if the players are still on his side. Carlos Delgado started to hit after Randolph was fired. Will a new coach give life to say a Markus Naslund? That remains to be seen, but if the Mets are any indication, a new coach means a fresh start for some of the players. .

It may not relieve the frustration, though. Wright started to get chippy with reporters last September when asked about the collapse. You can see the same happening with Lundqvist, the Rangers good guy.

“It would be very strange if I didn’t feel frustration, I think everybody does,” Lundqvist said. “It’s all about winning and we are not winning. We are working hard and trying to do the right things. [Sigh]”

The Rangers still have a month and a half and things can change. Yet, they may not have the personnel to go very far this season. Like Omar Minaya, Sather gave large contracts to players, who probably didn’t deserve them. Wade Redden is the Rangers Luis Castillo, but with a worse contract. Scott Gomez was paid to be Joe Thornton, much like the Mets signed Carlos Beltran to be their Manny Ramirez. Gomez and Beltran are good players, but are paid to be Hall of Famers. And gamers like Wright and Lundqvist are just too little to carry their respective clubs.

The fault lies with the general managers, with Minaya and Sather taking the hits. Yet, both get rewarded for their futility. Minaya got a four year extension for two collapses, while Sather may have to pass away to leave the Ranger general manager’s position.

And that’s the problem. With the same construction, both teams have suffered, with the Rangers going through their own Met-like collapse right now. Unfortunately, there’s not much that can be done, because even if the Rangers do make the playoffs, it will probably be one and out for the team.

Anything else would be Amazin.

No matter what the coach’s future will be, the Rangers need to do the right thing. Instead of letting “Renney Watch” hang over the team for a weeks, they need to make a decision and live with it. Either let Renney go and replace him with another coach – most likely being assistant general manager Jim Schoenfeld – or publically announce that Renney is the Rangers coach for the rest of the season and live with the decision.

Any other move will lead to continued speculation, negative chants from the Garden rafters, and ultimately more losses, since the players will become more tuned out to their coach.

Last summer we saw this with the Mets decision on Willie Randolph. Instead of giving their manager the thumbs up or ultimate dismissal, the team waivered, until being put in a position where firing him made him a sympathetic figure. Randolph was let go on the west coast after managing the Mets to a win. After being fired after the game, the press release came out at 3:17 a.m. Eastern Time. All that did was manage to infuriate the media, because it was missed in the morning papers, while keeping many sports writers up the night trying to get the story on the websites.

If the Mets made a quick decision on Randolph, it could be argued the team would have made the playoffs in 2008. Instead of 30 days of questions about their manager, the players would have moved on, and you would think the team would have one a few more games.

This is why the Rangers need to make a quick decision. As “Renney Watch” intensifies and more and more non -hockey reporters come to the Garden, the players will get questions about the status of their coach, which will probably translate to more losses on the ice, as the inquisitions will weigh upon them. The only way of stopping this vicious cycle will be when general manager Glen Sather or Garden chairman James Dolan makes a public announcement about the status of Renney.

Besides, Renney deserves better than twisting in the wind. Starting right before the lockout, the coach has brought dignity and grace back to the franchise. He has been the face of the organization, while Sather sat back on his high perch, shunning the public spotlight. The coach of the Rangers needs to be treated the same way he treated everyone he encountered as coach of the Blueshirts.

That’s why the Garden needs to do something. They need to say Renney is their man or put someone in whom they will stand behind. They can’t let Renney stand out there naked to take abuse from the New York crowd. It would be wrong, could torpedo the Rangers season, and ultimately makes Dolan and Sather look like fools.

Running his first Spring Training, the Mets manager gets a chance to put his mark on the club as he put the team through  various drills and stresses the Manuel brand of baseball.

“I think when you acquire guys that you felt that you were lacking, an area that you were lacking in, and then you acquire an excess in that area, you’ve got to feel pretty good,” Manuel said to reporters in Port St. Lucie as the Mets opened camp. “Not necessarily a stamp of any type, just making sure that your team understands the fundamentals, leaves healthy and know how to play the game. And if you have good players, you should have some success.”

Manuel will be doing some things different from his predecessor Willie Randolph. Seeing a lack of fundamentals, the manager will stress those aspects to his club during the next six weeks.  He will also experiment, saying he will put much maligned second baseman Luis Castillo in the leadoff position, while using Jose Reyes in different parts of the order.

“Spring training you have some freedom to look at things differently,” he said. “And you have to try to do everything you can to try and exercise that time frame where you can look at things differently and say, he might look good there, and see what it might look like without it costing you, why certain things are being done.”

Mainly though, Manuel wants to communicate more with his players, be it the stars like Reyes, David Wright, or Carlos Delgado, all the way down the last reserve on the roster.

“There’s going to be a lot of conversations,” he said. “There’s going to be a lot of conversations on those different things. Once the games start, there will be a lot of applause and celebrations for the little things that are done in the course that didn’t manifest itself statistically. There will be a big emphasis on those things, a huge emphasis.

“And also, for me, I will have to find some way to reward that versus rewarding a guy going 2 for 4, or he’s hot, but maybe he didn’t the things that I thought were necessary for us to win the game and a guy went 0 for 4 and did those things, well, I might play the guy who went 0 for 4 because he did the things that I thought were conducive to winning versus a guy who everybody said, he’s hitting .500. These types of things. It’s kind of a ticklish situation, but I think it’s a necessity for what needs to be done for this particular group.”

Manuel is trying to prevent the 2009 Mets suffering the same fate as the Met teams of the last two seasons. He knows it’s a 162 game season and the Mets need to strive through that. If this club is to return to the playoffs, then he says the emphasis needs to be on winning, rather than individual stats. So if that means Reyes hits third with Castillo leading off, then so be it.

“I think that message is so critical, especially for teams in New York,” Manuel said. “They care about the game and the W and the Ls versus how you do or how many you hit or how many you strike out. I think if I can get that point across, or if my staff can get that point across, then I would feel very good and very confident with the talent going into a full season.”

The Mets were just one of Henderson's many hats. (Jim Leary/NYSD)

Yesterday, the inevitable came for Rickey Henderson as the sure-fire first ballot Hall of Famer was elected carrying 511 of 539 ballots (94.8 percent) cast for 94.8% of the vote.

With 1,406 steals on his record and 2285 runs – both all-time records – Henderson redefined the leadoff position, while creating a rather colorful persona by speaking about himself in the third person.

Yet, it was the play on the field that defined the former Met, Yankee and Newark Bear and his teammates marveled in Henderson’s skill and style.

“His election is well-deserved,” said Hall of Famer Dave Winfield. “He was one of the best players I that ever played with and obviously the best leadoff hitter in baseball. We had a lot of fun pushing each other to play at higher levels. I’m very glad to see he got in.”

“Rickey and I have been friends for a long time, and I am ecstatic for him,” said Willie Randolph, who played with Henderson on the Yankees and A’s and had Henderson on staff with the Mets in 2007.  ”I’ve been fortunate and blessed to have played with a great number of phenomenal baseball players but pound-for-pound, Rickey Henderson is the best player I’ve ever played beside.

“No one was able to impact the course of a game in as many ways as Rickey. This is a great day for him, and I can’t wait to hear his acceptance speech.”

Henderson’s induction speech will happen in July, but here is NYSD’s interview with the Hall of Fame outfielder taken when he was a member of the Newark Bears back in July 2004.

NY Sports Day: What is the biggest difference in the way the game today compared to when you started?

Rickey Henderson: Fundamentals. There were probably more fundamentals. There were little things in the game that are missing today. That’s probably the difference (today) compared to when I started.

NYSD: How long do you plan on playing?

RH: I don’t know. I don’t have a timetable for that.

NYSD: In your 25 years in this game you have numerous records and accolades in your Hall of Fame career. What keeps you motivated after all these years?

RH: The gifts that I have. The gifts and desire to play baseball. That is what I set my life around coming out of high school and I still have the love for the game. I just don’t think that is my time to quit. A lot of times players don’t know when their time is up. It seems that it is not my time because I can play the game.

NYSD: Of all your records which one is the most special to you?

RH: The runs scored record is probably the most special.

NYSD: As a base stealer, what is going through you mind when you are on first or second looking to steal a base?

RH: It varies. Different pitchers have different motions and I try to pick out something while they are delivering the ball to the plate. What’s going through my mind is how good of a jump I will get.

NYSD: Has any major league team contacted you to play this year?

RH: We have had some clubs that are interested but are waiting to see what is going on. And to see how I play; what I do and how healthy I will be. Other than that there is nothing really definite right now.

NYSD: You are concentrating on base stealing and utilizing your speed this year. Are you making a concerted effort to drive the ball less and run more?

RH: Power never really was my game. You hear that they may want to see you run more and what you are capable of doing the best. I thought maybe that I was not giving them the stolen bases like they were looking for. I hit .400 here for 2 1/2 months last year and didn’t get the opportunity to get called up until I started going bad and not hitting the ball well. Then somebody got hurt and I got the opportunity. So I think it’s not the average that will get me to the big leagues. I am trying to get on base and create my running game and I will see what happens.

NYSD: Do you view yourself as a mentor to the younger players on the Bears?

RH: I think I am a mentor to some of the younger players on the team. I think they get a lot from me. I am the type of person who is willing to give lessons on what they are doing wrong and maybe I can help them.

NYSD: Of all your managers, which one have you enjoyed playing for the most and why?

RH: Billy Martin. I think he let us go out and play. He got the best out of you and he motivated me more than any other manager. I think he understood me because I went out there and gave him 100 percent each and every day no matter what was wrong with me. I gave him my best.

NYSD: What was your relationship with Bobby Valentine?

RH: We didn’t have a relationship. He was the manager and I was a player. We didn’t build a relationship and really didn’t have the time to have one.

NYSD: Do you have any animosity towards the Mets after they let you go in 2000?

RH: No, I have no animosity. I have no animosity with any team. I was blessed to get the opportunity to play baseball and I feel blessed to get the opportunity. What goes on (with the teams) I have no control of.

MS: Final question. How do you think this game will remember you after you retire?

RH: I don’t really know how the game will remember me after I retire. But I hope they remember me that I love this game and I played the game with my heart.