The Mets have no reason to second-guess their decision to replace
Willie Randolph. Since putting
Jerry Manuel in charge, the Mets have been one of the hottest teams in baseball and are in sole possession of the first place in the NL East. That said, owner
Fred Wilpon does regret
the way Randolph was fired, in the dark of night just one game into a west coast road trip. From
Bloomberg News:
``I know I screwed up,'' Wilpon told reporters at SportsNet New York's Manhattan studios. ``I should have said, `wait a second.'''
[...] Wilpon said he regrets not speaking up when Minaya told him the next day that he was going to fly to California and tell Randolph in person after the game. Because of the three-hour time difference, the announcement of Randolph's firing was left out of New York newspapers.
``I wasn't smart enough to say, `you are going to cut the New York press out?''' Wilpon said. ``I didn't even think of it.''
This won't make Randolph feel any better -- in other words, all Wilpon is saying is that he regrets not being able to tell the world sooner that he canned his manager. But reading between the lines -- which is always dangerous but so, so fun -- am I the only one who thinks it's interesting that Wilpon is pinning all of the blame on Minaya? It's one thing to say, "I know I screwed up," and it's another thing to say, "I know I screwed up by not reining in my GM." It wasn't all the long ago that Minaya was on the hot seat -- is this Wilpon's way of telling Minaya not to get too comfortable?
