The Slanch Report

Willie Randolph has been receiving a ton of criticism lately from the Mets faithful, many of whom have been very frustrated and disappointed in his managing. Willie’s poor decision making has been put under a microscope as the team has struggled and looked identical to the one that had the biggest regular season choke in baseball history last season.

With rumors that his head is on the chopping block, the Mets came out on Sunday and bashed the shit out of the ball, winning 11-2, apparently Willie had a fiery speech before the game, both to players and to the reporters. However, during his comments with the reporters he mentioned that he thinks SNY, the Mets owned network, has been portraying him unfairly and presenting him inaccurately.

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.

First of all, they don’t show those things because they aren’t interesting television, secondly, because the moments that are the toughest, when things go wrong, that’s when leadership matters and most of the time it looks like that word befuddles you.

Willie went on saying he wanted to know why Joe Torre managed in a similar way and wasn’t given the same amount of grief.

“Is it racial?” Randolph asked. “Huh? It smells a little bit.”

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.

Joe Torre was given a break mainly because he won 4 World Series! So far Willie you’ve managed your teams to one first place division win, two second places and a third. That’s not a record that is impressive. You play with one of the highest payrolls in the league and should do better than that. And the one year you DID win the division your team ended up losing to the worst World Series winners in years in the Cardinals. So, don’t you think that maybe THAT’S where the scrutiny comes from, and why Torre got a break. Also, Torre DIDN’T get a break the last two years did he? The NY Post and other papers, and Steinbrenner himself were all pretty angry and unhappy with Torre’s lackadaisical style, hence them going out and hiring the fiery Joe Girardi.

As for the racial stuff, frankly, that’s fucking bullshit. I have never heard ANYTHING remotely considered a racist comment from Keith (who isn’t smart enough to make a backhanded racist comment), Gary loves the Mets and hates to say ANYTHING negative and Ron is so nice that he never would do anything like that. Further, the reason people are upset is because you do things like pitch Billy Wagner in back-to-back games that are blowouts and non-save situations and then the next day when it actually IS a save situation you pitch him again. Gee, maybe those previous games weren’t the best situation for him… Or maybe it’s when Dusty Baker, your fellow dumb manager, batted his team out of order and instead of waiting until one pitch was thrown, thus getting both the hitter at the plate AND the hitter who was supposed to bat out you instead only got the one out. Or maybe it’s the mishandling of Aaron Heilman who should be starting, or at least tried in that role. Or maybe it’s how Jose Reyes went from the happiest man in baseball into a petulant, unhappy little boy because you don’t handle him carefully enough?

Continue reading ‘Black is Beautiful, Your Managing is AWFUL’