Free Willie: Why the Mets Treatment of Willie Randolph Was Warranted

Dear Mets fans,

How can I put this lightly? You are a bunch of idiots.

Too harsh? How about "morons?" Any better?

Yesterday should have been a bellwether day in the history of the Mets franchise. Willie Randolph's firing was the highlight of the season. The guy had to go. To quote a refrain I uttered to myself for the past two months, it was time to "get his ass out of here."

Instead, I'm hearing nothing but complaints and gnashing of teeth. A torrent of calls to WFAN and IM's to me, bemoaning the firing of the much maligned manager:

"This isn't the way to treat someone!"

"I'm never rooting for this team again!"

Mets fans, What more did you need to see? The team flat-out quit on Willie Randolph — mental errors, no hustle, a lackadaisical look on their faces. I know the team as currently constituted is a piece of garbage, but that doesn't mean they don't have to try.

What's worse, though, is that the fans quit on this team too. Loud boos and jeers earlier in the season were reduced to stunned silence and apathy during their last homestand. The message to ownership was clear: Make a change.

And in baseball, that change is the manager. He's the first to go. You can yell and holler about Omar Minaya and the terrible job he's done, but it doesn't work that way. First the manager goes, then the GM, then the players. That's the thread line for any sports organization. And Willie had to go. He sucked at this. You can say he had no players, but Omar still gave him three top-15 players in Major League Baseball to work with (Jose Reyes, David Wright and Johan Santana). Throw in a top-30 player in Carlos Beltran, one of the best closers in the league in Billy Wagner, a surefire Hall of Famer in Pedro Martinez and a breakout player in Ryan Church, and on paper, the Mets should be a lot better.

Now, we all know that those players are dogs — that Beltran is a piece of crap, endlessly watching a called third strike; that Reyes is a selfish and over-rated player, Rickey Henderson without the talent; that Santana has too much wear on his golden arm and is clearly heading towards the downside of his run. But, that's an argument for the off-season. Right now, the team quit. It needed a change. And this change was long overdue. Willie had to go.

I know what you're saying, "But why did they have to fire him at 3:15 AM! Show the guy some class! You don't treat people that way!!" And to that, I say to you: Who cares?

Who cares when he was fired? Am I supposed to feel bad for Willie Randolph? He's going to get paid a lot of money to do nothing for the next couple of years. He's going to get another job in baseball. Ooooooh, the Mets made him fly across the country just to get fired in the middle of the night in Anaheim. So what?! If you were getting fired tomorrow, wouldn't you want a free trip out to sunny California to hear the news? It's not like they made him fly to China.

People say you are supposed to feel bad when someone gets fired. I don't. I feel bad when someone gets laid off. When someone loses their job because of budget or because of a company wide change of direction, that sucks. That is a terrible thing, and, having been laid off, I will always feel bad for those people. It's not fun.

But I'm supposed to feel bad when someone gets fired? Why? When you get fired it means you did a crappy job and had to pay the consequences. People get fired for failing. Willie failed. He was given plenty of opportunities to right this ship, to improve his job performance, and he didn't. He had to pay the consequences.

Willie got fired and I will happily dance on his grave.

I've had to sit here for 24 hours, listening to Mets fans complain on WFAN, and I'm tired of it. In the end, we are the ones who got Willie fired. We made our hate for this team and their play loud and clear, both in our jeers and in our silence. Now we're upset with the outcome? Now we don't have the stomach for Willie getting fired?

Grow up! We got what we wanted. Willie is done. Omar will be next. And eventually the team will get back to being a solid contender.

This is the first step.

Instead of complaining like a little petulant child, enjoy it.

Warmest regards,

42 Inch Television