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In-and-Out Burgers, the last good Mets squad and the dumping of the Bunt-O-Matic manager who never should have managed in the first place.
Mets return to Anaheim for the first time since Willie Randolph firing fiasco of 2008
When the Mets play the Angels Friday night, it will be their first time in the home of Disneyland since then-general manager Omar Minaya axed Randolph at 3 a.m. East Coast time.
BY Kristie Ackert
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Friday, April 11, 2014, 9:22 AM
ATLANTA - The second Kevin Burkhardt saw the itinerary for the Mets’ first road trip of the 2014 season, the SNY reporter started having flashbacks to the Mets’ last visit to Anaheim.
He remembers sitting down to enjoy a late night In-and-Out burger when all hell broke loss. His phone started buzzing and just like that he was running to find a cab to get back to the Westin in Costa Mesa, California, where he would spend the early morning hours of June 17, 2008.
"I looked at the itinerary and I couldn't believe it, we are staying in the same hotel," Burkhardt said this week. That hotel is where the Mets pulled their own version of midnight madness, firing manager Willie Randolph in the middle of the night. “I immediately started thinking about trying to stay awake in the lobby waiting to get Willie and (pitching coach) Rick Peterson after they were fired."
When the Mets play the Angels Friday night, it will be their first time in the home of Disneyland since then-general manager Omar Minaya axed Randolph at 3 a.m. East Coast time. But it is a much different team, one with few connections to what some consider one of the most embarrassing moments in recent Mets history.
A year after collapsing in the final weeks of the 2007 season, the 2008 Mets — featuring stars Carlos Delgado, Johan Santana, Carlos Beltran, Jose Reyes and David Wright — were a big-budget squad, expected to not only play meaningful games in September, but compete for a World Series title in October.
But the 2008 team was struggling at a game under .500 when it kicked off a West Coast trip in Anaheim.
EFE OUT Nick Ut/AP Mets GM Omar Minaya takes heat for the way he fired Willie Randolph.
In his last night at the helm of the Mets, Randolph managed the Mets to a 9-6 win over the Angels. Mike Pelfrey beat Jered Weaver and Billy Wagner picked up the save. But Minaya proved to be the ultimate closer that night.
A few hours later, Minaya gave Randolph - who went 302-253 as manager and led the team to its only division title since 1988 - the ax.
The Willie watch had been on for some time and a 5-game losing streak the previous week seemed to seal Randolph’s fate. After a Father Day’s double-header split at Shea against Texas, Burkhardt and other reporters waited around at Shea Stadium expecting the Mets to fire Randolph before flying across the country. But the Mets let Randolph fly to Anaheim, it appeared he was safe for the time being. He was not.
"It just got to the point that speculation about his job had become a distraction to the team," said Minaya, now with the Padres as a Senior Vice President of Baseball Operations. "It was a tough thing. Willie and I were friends. We still are good friends.
"I know the optics of it looked bad, late at night on the West Coast, but I wanted to do it after the game," Minaya explained. "But it was my decision and a decision that had to be done.
SNY Field Reporter Kevin Burkhardt reports as the New York Mets play baseball inside Citi Field in Queens on Wednesday, May 12, 2010. Anthony DelMundo for New York Daily News SNY's Kevin Burkhardt doesn't pull any punches as he blasts the Mets the next morning for the way in which the organization handled the firing of Willie Randolph.
"I am rooting for Willie Randolph to get another manager's job," Minaya said. "He was over .500 as a manager. He deserves another chance."
Wright, the only remaining player on the roster from that game, said he too still has a good relationship with Randolph. He said that he has very vague memories from those days.
"I think managers understand it when they take the job, a lot of times, they take the fall for players underperforming, or injuries or a combination of both, that's been the case a couple times," said Wright. "Managers get a lot grief a lot of times about stuff they don't have a lot of control over."
The Mets under Jerry Manuel, played well, finishing 89-73, but just like in 2007, had a chance to make the playoffs the final weekend of the season only to lose two of the three to the Marlins at Shea. The finale, a 4-2 loss in the last game ever played at Shea Stadium also marked the end of their last winning season.
There have not been many highlights since then, but certainly that night stood out as one of the lowest points in the franchise’s history. Not only did fans and media members rip the Mets for their handling of Randolph, it turned a manager many thought should be canned into a sypathetic figure. It was a mess.
New York Mets interim manager Jerry Manuel talks before the Mets' baseball game against the Los Angeles Angels, during a news conference in Anaheim, Calif, Tuesday, June 17, 2008. Manuel was promoted from bench coach after manager Willie Randolph was fired. (AP Photo/Nick Ut) Nick Ut/AP Jerry Manuel is named interim skipper of the Mets on June 17, 2008.
Burkhardt, who spent most of the night in the lobby waiting to get a comment from Randolph and Peterson, went on the air live at 6 a.m. and fired away at the Mets for their handling of the situation.
"I went on for 15 minutes and I wasn't shy what I thought about the situation…... I ripped into how they handled it for 15 minutes, I was exhausted. It was one of those things that when I got done, I was like….hmmmm….I wonder how that will be received," Burkhardt said with a laugh.
In fact, Burkhardt never heard a peep about it from the front office or the Mets ownership. Now, Burkhardt, who is a national broadcaster with Fox as well as SNY, looks back at that 24 hours as a seminal moment in his career and for SNY, which gained some credibility when other announcers joined him in unanimous criticism of the move.
"It wasn't just me, we were all pretty critical of how it was handled and no one said anything about it, so I think it was a pretty big moment where people though 'OK SNY is gonna be a little different,' it was big for," Burkhardt said.
Almost falling asleep on the broadcast that day, with no sleep for over 24 hours, Burkhardt can't remember exactly what he said, but he has the same strong feelings.
"You know what as a human being this is BS what they did to him," Burkhardt said. "He was home. Sunday night, you could have said 'Hey thanks for the memories.'
"Omar told him after the game, they put out an email 3 Eastern, it was bad," he concluded. There is a right way to do it and a wrong way to do it and they did it the wrong way. No question." |
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