By BART HUBBUCH
Last updated: 7:42 pm
June 27, 2008
Posted: 3:18 am
June 18, 2008
ANAHEIM, Calif. - Omar Minaya had seen and heard enough.
The Mets' GM explained his bizarrely timed decision to fire Willie Randolph in the wee hours yesterday morning - after the Mets' third win in four games, no less - by saying the circus around Randolph had gotten out of hand.
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"We could not go on as a team with the way it was last weekend," Minaya said yesterday, referring to the most recent round of fever-pitch media speculation about Randolph's future.
Minaya said his disgust with that circus and with the lackluster play of his $140 million roster prompted the Midnight Massacre axings of Randolph, pitching coach Rick Peterson and first base coach Tom Nieto after Monday night's 9-6 win here over the Angels.
"I myself, thinking through the decision and based on talking to Willie Sunday after the game, I felt it was not fair to the team, to Willie Randolph or the organization to have this cloud hanging over," Minaya said. "I decided that I had to have closure to this."
Randolph, who said he was "stunned" when Minaya called him to his Costa Mesa hotel suite near midnight Pacific time Monday and ended his nearly four-year tenure as manager, was replaced on an interim basis by bench coach Jerry Manuel.
Minaya said Manuel, a former AL Manager of the Year with the White Sox, is guaranteed to finish the year. The Mets also brought up Ken Oberkfell, Dan Warthen and Luis Aguyo from their minor-league system to fill the coaching spots, with Warthen - a veteran pitching coach with three big-league teams - taking over for Peterson.
Oberkfell, who had been manager of the Mets' Triple-A affiliate in New Orleans, is now first-base, coach while Aguyo replaced Sandy Alomar Sr. as third-base coach when Manuel moved Alomar into the bench role.
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