Like a lot of people, I grow weary of the Willie Randolph death vigil. And I have reluctantly, and somewhat belatedly, come to the conclusion that Willie has got to go.
I have long supported Willie Randolph. I have liked his management of the Mets, and I admired him back in the days when he played second base for the Yankees. He comes across as likeable, straightforward, non-hysterical and clear-minded. Where others have second-guessed some of his management decisions, I have said yeah right. Had it worked, he’d be hailed as a genius.
But he’s the manager of a team that has been underperforming by too much for too long. The buck has to stop first with him, next with Omar Minaya. It doesn’t matter whether it’s fair or unfair. Life is unfair. Willie Randolph, I bow deeply to you in gassho.
Category: baseball
Mets’ shame and disgrace, Mets fans’ anguish
At least the torture of the past two and a half weeks is over.
Mostly. Now we have to put up with Yankee fans rubbing our faces in this horrific shit. Them in the post-season, us not — how can this be happening? How? Because we are Mets fans.
But this, this is truly ugly. It would be one thing if we had fought valiantly most of the year and then simply were beaten fair and square early in the playoffs, as we were last year. Or if the reverse had happened: if we had sucked ten kinds of ass all year and then suddenly made a valiant run that simply fell short. That we could handle. But this nightmarish, total collapse, this complete falling apart, folding up and lying down to die on our own turf at the hands of sub-.500 teams, is a slap in the fans’ face that is hard to take.
But take it we will. We have no choice. We are Mets fans.
Do the Nats have a secret weapon against the Mets?
I rarely have an original thought about baseball so the need to share this one is urgent.
During the Mets latest series against the Nationals the guys calling the game on WFAN kept reminding us that we were getting our asses royally kicked by the lowest-scoring team in the league.
Remember that their manager Manny Acta is the former third base coach for the Mets. So he knows some things about the Mets. Let’s also remember that he was a crafty fuck. I heard that he had a little thing he would sometimes do with Spanish-speaking baserunners coming towards third. He would hold up the stop sign while telling then in Spanish to keep going, so as to decoy the opposing defense. Of course a lot of the opposition also presumably understands Spanish, but not all of them are within earshot. Sneaky!
I wonder if Manny does not have some piece of intelligence, or some exceptionally slick sign-stealing going on, or some other tactical advantage(s) that he is exploiting masterfully to thrash the Mets during this series.