My friend John and I trekked to Brooklyn to watch the last regular season Yankee game and Superman Doomsday with our friend Deshant and his girlfriend Tracy. When I e-mailed the plan around three weeks ago, I billed it as "Superman Doomsday (Hopefully Not Yankees' Doomsday)."
Deshant made chili, Tracy made biscuits, and John brought a cannoli cake. We watched some of the Yankee game. Jorge Posada managed, Andy Pettitte was bench coach, and Mike Mussina was pitching coach. We were more drawn to what turned out to be doomsday for the Mets' 2007 season.
Met fans are calling for Tom Glavine's head: How could he come up short in such a huge spot? They're calling for Willie Randolph's head: How did he manage to lose a 7 1/2-game lead with 17 games to go? In this Yankee fan's opinion, they should be calling for a better bullpen.
Dump Tom Glavine? He's close to retirement anyway. If the Mets' relief pitching had held more leads, he wouldn't be in the position of pitching a crucial game on the last day of the regular season.
Dump Willie Randolph for a more fiery manager? Fiery rarely works over the long haul of a season. Managers don't play the games anyway.
Get younger? The current Mets are young, and because of that, they have a hothead like Jose Reyes and a hotdog like Lastings Milledge.
Reporters and fans are asking how the Mets will overcome the worst collapse on MLB history. My answer would be that next season is a new season. Everyone starts 0-0 with nothing to overcome.
Don't get me wrong. I sympathize after the Yanks' historic 2004 postseason collapse.
3 comments:
Everyone deserves some blame. The young players are too cocky. The starting pitching only lasted 5 innings a game. The relief pitching, mediocre to begin with, was exhausted and couldn't survive.
As for Willie? I honestly think he lost this team. Does he deserve to be fired? Probably not, but... not a great job by him this year.
As for Willie? I honestly think he lost this team. Does he deserve to be fired? Probably not, but... not a great job by him this year.
The bullpen probably was exhausted, but what could Willie do about that? He didn't have Pedro Martinez for most of the year. One more game here or there was all they needed. Did the players really need a manager's inspiration/what have you to hold a 7 1/2-game lead with 17 games to go?
In my book, if a player quits on a manager, it reflects more on the player than the manager.
I like Willie, and I think he's done a good job this year. Obviously, none of us can know how great or little he impacted his players during their September slide. Sometimes, when you're losing, the mentality morphs into a self-fulfilling prophecy. That could have been what happened here.
One gripe I do have with Willie is how do you keep ANY starting pitcher, whether it's Tom Glavine, Roger Clemens, or Cy Young himself, on the mound long enough to give up seven runs in the first inning? In my opinion, after three or four runs, you've got to make a change. In the last game of the season, all hands are on deck, and you've got to get a new arm in there.
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