Sep 27 2006 11:48 AM
Omar and Willie in the Times.
Tales of the Two Who Got Away: Minaya and Randolph
 Omar Minaya, left, and Willie Randolph had a combined total of 23 unsuccessful job interviews before they got their jobs with the Mets. |
By MURRAY CHASS
Published: September 26, 2006
In leading their team to the playoffs next week, Omar Minaya and Willie Randolph are headed there with what is most likely a record.
The Elias Book of Baseball Records doesn’t list it. Neither Elias nor anyone else keeps track of it. But with a combined total of 23 unsuccessful job interviews before they got their jobs with the Mets, Minaya and Randolph most likely went through more questions and answers than any other playoff-bound general manager and manager.
When the Mets named Minaya their general manager two years ago, he had been interviewed for nine other general manager jobs. When Minaya named Randolph the Mets’ manager, Randolph had interviewed for 14 other managerial jobs.
Now, two years later, Minaya and Randolph are preparing their team for postseason games. Most of the 15 teams that didn’t hire them have not had winning seasons since, let alone reached the playoffs.
•Some teams had the misfortune of missing on both Minaya and Randolph. Some had two shots at each man and passed both times.
The Milwaukee Brewers interviewed Randolph twice and Minaya once. The Seattle Mariners interviewed Minaya twice and Randolph once. Colorado, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati interviewed them once each. When have most of those clubs played postseason games or even had winning records in the years since they hired others to run their teams?
The Toronto Blue Jays are on their fifth manager since they rejected Randolph in 1997 in favor of Tim Johnson, and on their third manager since they passed him over in 2000 for Buck Martinez. Baltimore and Cincinnati are working with their third managers since they made Randolph an also-ran in their interview process.
Ned Colletti is the fourth general manager the Los Angeles Dodgers have employed since they chose not to hire Minaya in 1998.
The Reds, the Mariners, the Brewers and the Rangers are on their second general managers since passing on Minaya.
The Mets passed on Randolph (when they hired Art Howe in 2002) and Minaya (in 2003, when they foolishly wanted him to share duties with Jim Duquette).
Minaya, at the time, was in his second year as general manager of the Montreal Expos and was the first Hispanic general manager in baseball. The Expos were the ward of Major League Baseball, and Commissioner Bud Selig hired Minaya, who was the Mets’ senior assistant general manager, to run their baseball operation.
In making that groundbreaking appointment, Selig got a nudge from Len Coleman, the former National League president and an aggressive champion of minority hiring in decision-making positions.
“I had pushed Omar for several jobs without success,’’ Coleman recalled yesterday in a telephone interview. “I felt he was an extremely bright baseball mind and he deserved a chance. I felt he should have an opportunity to prove himself and I had no doubt he would be successful.’’
Coleman recalled hearing several names in connection with the Expos’ job but not Minaya’s.
“I called Bud because I knew he was committed to minority advancements,’’ Coleman said. “There had never been an Hispanic general manager. This would be an opportunity to make a groundbreaking appointment. Obviously, Bud agreed.’’
It was in his first weeks in Montreal that Minaya put to rest the excuse some teams had used for not hiring him — that he lacked administrative skills. Minaya assumed command of a barren front office and filled it by hiring about 100 employees. He took over a minor league system that had virtually no managers, coaches or trainers and filled all of the positions in time for spring training.
Randolph, too, quickly made a mockery of the so-called word against him, that he had never managed anywhere, even in the minor leagues or the Arizona Fall League, and thus lacked experience. The claim was not always made about white candidates who were managing for the first time, but Randolph was black and teams sometimes seemed to need a reason for not hiring him.
Probably the most honest and acceptable reason came in 2002 from Doug Melvin of the Brewers, who when he was in Texas made Minaya baseball’s first head of professional scouting. Melvin explained that he had named Ned Yost manager because he had been a coach in the National League for 12 years and Randolph had been a coach in the American League.
In assessing the quick success Minaya and Randolph have had with the Mets, critics could point to the money Minaya was allowed to spend in acquiring players like Carlos Beltrán, Carlos Delgado, Pedro Martínez, Paul Lo Duca and Billy Wagner.
But other general managers have spent lavishly and not won, and Minaya has proved adept at finding productive low-priced players. No team signed better bench players for 2006 than José Valentín, Endy Chávez and Julio Franco, whose combined salaries this year fall short of $2.5 million.
•In the payroll department, the Red Sox, the White Sox and the Angels have higher payrolls than the Mets, more than $100 million each, and they aren’t going to be in the playoffs.
The Dodgers have won one division title in the past seven years, averaging $97 million a year in payroll. The Rangers finished last for four successive seasons, 2000 through 2003, and had an average payroll of $90 million. Since the Mariners won a division title in 2001, they have averaged $85 million in payroll and have not finished first again.
With the success Minaya has had this year, he might have orchestrated the Dodgers, the Rangers and the Mariners into better position than they have found themselves.
As an added benefit to the Mets’ success this season, there has been no talk for months about Minaya’s Latinization of the Mets. Then again, Anna Benson, who fueled much of that talk, is in Baltimore with her husband, Kris. If she has made additional comments about the Mets’ Latin beat, they have not reached New York.