RIDICULOUS, PART II

A big event like the Willie Randolph firing gets two postings in one day (make sure you scroll down if you didn't see the first yet).

I wanted to react to Omar Minaya's press conference.

And I want to start by saying I respect Minaya for his friendship with Randolph, and I respect how hard a decision it was for him. I'm sure he's genuine when he says that. I also respect the fact that it was 11:15pm local (Anaheim) time when he had his meeting with Randolph, which he stressed. And I respect that he wanted to be up front and honest with Randolph, and inform him right away, and not have word get out ahead of time, and that he wanted to sleep on the decision before making it and speaking to Randolph. I respect all that...I really do.

And I respect that it was HIS decision, something else he stressed. What I don't respect at all is the way he made the decision.

Omar, you wanted to sleep on this decision? The past month wasn't long enough for you? You could have hibernated on this decision.

Yes, Omar, you met with Randolph at a reasonable time in Anaheim. But please remember something - this Randolph firing affects a lot of people, not the least of which are the fans - 90% of which were sleeping, back on the east coast, when this decision was "announced" (if a press release and an e-mail is an announcement). I firmly believe you wanted to avoid the type of press conference you had to hold in Anaheim anyway on Tuesday afternoon. Did you know that some media types would be left back in New York, and you might not have to answer all of the tough questions? You really looked nervous addressing the folks you addressed on Tuesday - maybe you were nervous about doing it in New York.

You could have slept on the decision Saturday night, Friday night, last week, etc. There's no reason you had to fly all the way out to Anaheim to fire Randolph. You talked about not humiliating Randolph - I don't know that it would have been less humiliating for him to just have to clean out his office in between games of a doubleheader.

I feel like the decision that was made wasn't fair to Randolph - he has to be accosted by the media in a hotel lobby instead of at a presser in the old Jets locker room at Shea? It also wasn't fair to the fans - we deserve more than a note on the crawl on ESPNEWS.

(That said, I also decided, after listening to Jerry Manuel, I am not going to take all of this out on him. I hope the Mets do well the rest of this season, though I don't think some of the players deserve a successful season.)

Bottom line - I think it says a lot about the type of General Manager you are when it takes you this long to make a decision that everyone else knew was coming for a long time. What else might you be hesitant to pull the trigger on?

I am not in the business of calling for people to lose their jobs. It's different in professional sports, I feel (I'm not going to go to my boss and ask her to fire someone I work with, but I would voice that opinion about a pro sports figure), but I still don't like making a habit of it. And with that said, Omar Minaya needs to put the Mets in a position to improve, and fast. Or else I think the GM spot should have a vacancy as well.