From the Bergen Record’s Steve Popper :
With the Mets in self-destruct mode on and off the field, Omar Minaya is on his way to Denver to see first-hand exactly what is going on.
With the off-field soap opera swirling the Mets desperately needed wins in Atlanta and instead were thrashed for a four-game sweep that has the team now below .500 at 22-23. Randolph has needed a win in the worst way and if he doesn’t get them this weekend Memorial Day might not bode well for him.
Ownership has planned on meeting with him when the team returns home and there is a hesitance to dump a manager who is still owed $2.25 million next season. But the Mets also don’t want to sit tight with an underachieving team and a new stadium sprouting in the background.
Hey, maybe the Mets and Rockies can swap managers at the end of the weekend? Seriously, who is this terrific, leader-of-men who is going instill discipline, passion, competency, etc. as a mid-season hire? Joel Sherman suggests Joe Torre would’ve gotten the call, had he not already found employment in Los Angeles. The notion of Keith Hernandez managing this club strikes me as slightly more nonsensical than Mike D’Antoni taking over the Knicks.
If Randolph is indeed fired for some combination of poor results and insurbordination, I sincerely hope Jerry Manuel will reveal a top secret method of reversing the aging process for Carlos Delgado, El Duque, Pedro and Moises Alou.
If you’re a fan of irrational, borderline batshit-crazy public outbursts, you’ll love this excerpt from Joe Benigno-Gazingo & Evan Roberts’ WFAN program earlier today. Benigno is fairly adamant that Carlos Beltran is a non-hustling, overrated clubhouse cancer. I’ve never considered the possiblity before that Benigno spends much time in the Mets clubhouse, and if he does, that finally explain why the likes of Beltran, Delgado and Reyes are in such an alleged hurry to get the fuck outta dodge after the game. Who in their right mind wants to hang around with this guy?
It was an epic moment between those two. Benigno sounded ready to punch Roberts. Probably the funniest grown man screaming match I’ve ever heard.