Mets Fire Willie Randolph Classlessly

There are shitty ways to fire people. And then there's completely classless ways to fire people that deny them any shred of dignity that their tenure, service to the organization, or even common courtesy to a fellow may merit or deserve.

Today, at 3:15a ET, after the Mets beat the Angels in a meaningless interleague road game 3000 miles away, Mets GM Omar Minaya fired manager Willie Randolph. It was probably an impersonal phone call, if not a text message devoid of vowels to meet the 160-character limit. This sort of cowardly move to avoid the morning papers and the crush of New York media might have worked in the 1950s, but in the age of the internet, word travels. And early public opinion on the nature of the move (if not the move itself) is largely negative.

And with that, a good man (and debatable coach--but irrespective, by all accounts a good man and class guy) is gone. The man who would have been a coach at the MLB All-Star Game less than one month away. Well done, Omar.

It's also interesting that a team with a bloated payroll has fired a coach who took them to the playoffs in 2006, saw them collapse down the stretch in 2007, and is sputtering in the first half of 2008. And the Mets are only one game below .500, or three games ahead of the seven-games-below-breakeven Dodgers.

You listening, Joe Torre?