On this day 21 years ago, Willie Randolph was hired as the 18th Mets manager. He accumulated a 302-253 record.

22 comments

  6. Never once did he leave the dugout to argue a call with the umpires or protect a player. Very disappointing manager but a very nice man

  8. I liked him but he eventually lost the room. It was time to let him go but the way it was done was total amateur hour. Though par for the course when it comes to the Wilpons.

  9. Ridiculous the way he was fired but he was not a good manager. He was very stubborn, he keyed in on his guys and there was almost no way to shake him of that. In ’05 he gave a cooked Miguel Cairo over 350 PAs. He had no idea what to do with a BP.

    He had been interviewed for a lot of managerial jobs prior to the Mets hiring him and never managed again. It was telling.

    He was still a far superior manager to Jerry Manuel though, who outside of Mickey Callaway, was the worst Mets manager I have ever seen.

  11. The way, and the where they fired him is the most low class thing the organization has ever done. That was my most embarrassed to be a Mets fan moment. He might not have been the best manager, but he was Willie F ing Randolph! He deserved better.

  12. I know there is some nostalgia around the Randolph era, especially from younger fans, but he really was not a good manager. Poor bullpen and in-game management and just watched the 2007 team piss the season away assuming it wouldn’t actually happen. Doesn’t mean he should’ve been fired at 3am, but there’s a reason he didn’t get the dozen other jobs he interviewed for before us and didn’t get a manager job after we canned him.

  14. Willie was a class act from day 1. I used to run into him when my friend & I would hang out & play stick ball in Betsy Head Park in Brownsville, Bklyn. He honed his batting eye those years. The Mets didn’t deserve him & Willie certainly didn’t need Jerry Manuel back stabbing him for the Manager’s job. Just another example of the Met’s disfunctional organization.

  16. His firing was one of the most low class things I’ve ever seen an organization do. He deserved better. I think he at least earned the respect to be manager until the end of the season. If at the end you want to move on, then fair enough. But the way they handled it should be taught as what not to do.

  17. I wasn’t surprised that the Mets fired Willie, as they were playing really terribly under him the first half of 2008 (and obviously, after The Collapse, he was on thin ice…).

    What boggles my mind is that not one single team ever gave him another shot.

  18. He even had his own version of Mendy’s “We have the talent.” Seemed like Willie answered every tough question with “Our guys go out and try hard every day.”

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