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May 17, 2008 12:36 pm US/Eastern
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Mets Must Win Subway Series - Now More Than Ever
As NYC's Historical 2nd Team And With Mounting Problems In '08, Amazins Need To Make Statement
By CHRIS MESSINGER, WCBSTV.com
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
It's hard to deny the obvious: This baseball season's first Subway Series has lost some of its lustrous appeal.
Friday's dark, gloomy conditions didn't help the deteriorating sense of spring fever that usually accompanies a Mets-Yankees series. What's different this May? Let's start with the teams' play up until now.
Whether you're for the Bombers or the Amazins', one thing is certain -- you're concerned with the course your team is taking. If this year's first set of Interleague games involving the two sources of baseball pride in New York is to mean anything for either side, one team will need to dig its way out of the cellar, literally, while the other tries to establish an identity amid a bunch of good, but not great teams in its own division.
Prior to Friday's postponement, Mets GM Omar Minaya was asked if Willie Randolph is in "danger of losing his job," to which he replied, unequivocally, "No." He then said, perhaps in an attempt to administer some damage control to recent internal flare-ups, he's very supportive, and continues to be supportive of Randolph.
Minaya's support of his skipper is in stark contrast to the Yankees' Hank Steinbrenner, whose very public criticism of his team's play -- as the Steinbrenners are historically prone to do -- gives the impression that Joe Girardi is on temporary death row.
But the Mets' early season problems are coming on the heels of last season's seismic collapse. Many critics were calling for Randolph's head immediately after Hall of Famer Tom Glavine pitched what was probably the worst inning of his career, but Minaya stood by his man, and continues to do so despite a lackluster start to a season in which even the most faithful of fans vowed to give their love-hate relationship another try.
But let's keep a few things in perspective before we help decide the fate of a manager unfairly held accountable for a team's infrastructure that "seems" to be on the verge of a break down:
* Randolph led the Mets to 97 wins and a trip to the NLCS in 2006.
* For most of 2007 they were one of baseball's best teams, and then, suddenly, without sufficient warning, his players stopped producing.
* Randolph was a player, and the old saying "once a player, always a player" still rings true. This applies to his managerial approach with his team. Many outsiders hold Randolph responsible for what they call a "divided" clubhouse, which they simultaneously attribute to his subdued temperament on and off the field. But it is clear watching Randolph that the 53-year-old South Carolina native holds his own council. Before Friday's washout, Randolph had this to say in an interview on a local radio talk show:
"Listen, I back my team every day. And, look, they don't show me on the bench when I'm tripping from the dugout, you know, you don't see that part of me. You don't see me walking up and down the dugout, rooting for my guys, teaching them, pushing them, prodding them to get going. They only show me when some one gives up a hit or makes an error, and they show my face and I'm not going to show my players up. So, that's the perception you get from me, is what they show when something goes wrong. Outside of that, I'm as animated and as much in the game as any manager in baseball..."
The problem for the Mets is not concealed by secrecy; it's out there on the field for all to see. It is not to suggest that a conflicted team is not a major concern, but in this case too much is being made of the players simply being frustrated by their play.
Third baseman David Wright was asked on Friday about the state of affairs inside the clubhouse. He responded by citing the team's hitting problems, adding that there were in fact no such tensions within team walls.
So here we are, a quarter of the way into the 2008 season, and the Mets are one game above .500. For a team that played cellar-quality baseball for more than a decade, the pressures to win are suddenly unreasonably high. But that's what sports are all about -- the demand for a product that makes a following proud.
Maybe that's what this Subway Series represents: A chance for the Mets to figure out who they are before it's too late.
In this case, it just so happens their opponent this weekend is the Yankees, and the site is, of all places, Yankee Stadium, where the world's biggest microscope is always in service.
(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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