In a surprising development, Willie Randolph delivered a public apology during his pregame session with reporters a few minutes ago. Randolph read from a sheet of paper with handwritten notes and said he was sorry for the inflammatory comments published in the Bergen Record on Monday. More to follow ...
(Here's a quickie update. I know Randolph has been apologizing to every media outlet now over the past couple of hours, but here's what he said to reporters from his desk at Turner Field).
"Before I start guys, I need to say a few things real quick.
"I just kind of wrote down a few notes and something I wanted to kind of share with you guys.
First of all I want to apologize to Met ownership, SNY and my team for the unnecessary distraction that I created, that I caused the last couple of days. I shouldn’t have said what I said. It was a mistake – simple as that. It was a mistake. There’s no excuses for that. No excuses for it. I’m owning up to it.
"The fact of life is that we haven’t been playing very well as a team. We’ve been very inconsistent. We’ve talked about that before. When that happens, you’re going to get criticized for that. I understand that. It’s been a tough couple of months. I expect a lot from my team, from myself, and um, I understand that goes along with it. I’ve been in this town for a long time.
"I take full responsibility for what I said in my frustration and I hope that we can put a close to this matter and focus on winning a lot of baseball games. That’s what we’re here to do – win a championship. I just wanted to publicly apologize and I take full responsibility for what happened a couple of days ago.
Comments (10)
he is on MIKE AND THE MAD DOG .... WILLIE IS A BIG BABY. im sorry im sorry im sorry ....... tell that to the team and lets get to start winning again .... what a joke .....
This is the same guy that told billy wagner to "keep it in-house"
What a hypocrite.
Hey willie, get lost.
Can blame Willie all u want.....Loser Omar is the one that put this cast of CHOKERS together !
FIRE OMAR TODAY !!
Willie has to till the All Star break to get this mess straightened out. He should have shoved the baseball from the blown Delgado home run down the throats of those umps at Yankee Stadium. There is an excellent manager over in Japan who is quite familiar with the Mets. Maybe its time to bring him back. There is no smarter baseball mind than Valentine despite his faults
OMAR MINAYA! Are you kidding me? He went and got some of the best people in baseball at the time he got them, Pedro, Wagner, Beltran, Delgato,Santana and some really good diamonds in the rough, Main, Church, Nady, Chavez. Are you telling me that the Braves had better personel two years ago? How about St. Louis in 2006 or the Marlins this year? You need a manager to get the most out of their players. Did Parcells have the best cast of charecters? How about Valentine or Larussa or Cox for that matter. This is a failure of leadership, plain and simple. And with a new ball park next year, ownership better do something fast because, although I bleed Met's blue, I simply do not enjoy this team any longer. I just don't like watching them and for the first time in over 40 years, I consistantly miss games, lots of games. I never did that before. Willie has proven one thing. He has created a place where talent comes to die. And don't kid yourself. The only players that will be willing to come hear and 'kill' there talent are those looking to make quick money. This team is no longer fun OR talented. Put Pinella or Valentine at the helm, maybe they get their talent back. But they may simply be too broken spirited now. Willie's a great guy. I love the man and totally respect his career witht the Yankees. Unfortunately for him, this is the Met's and it needed a leader, not a cheerleader. And now, they have neither. Let's go Jets.
Pedro, Delgado, Castillo and some of the other guys Omar brought in were great players in their time but no more. Yes, Omar brought in some great talent but no where near their prime. I am the biggest Pedro fan but how many games has he won for us. He was a big lift but sooner or later emotional leadership can take you only so far. You need players to play.
Met fans need to wake up. Randolph might be your scape goat but he isn't the reason this team stinks. Omar Minya said he was going to develop a farm system. All he did was make bad trades and gutted whatever little farm system the mets had and built a now win team. In 2006 when the national league teams were rebuilding the mets should have gone to the world series. With older players now basically done and the national league allot better the mets have no farm system and an aging team that will only get worse. If anybody should be fired it's Omar Minya and his posse. Wilpon's need to wake up and find a GM like Frank cashen who knows how to develop a farm system and make good trades.
DocRobby ,
"This team is no longer fun OR talented",
exactly, that's not on the manager that's on the GM. I don't care what manager you bring in it's not going to matter. Torre was never a good manager before he came to the yankees and he still isn't a good manager but the yankees won because they had a very good team. The manager angle in baseball is over rated. Whatever good trades Omar did he turned around and made just as much bad trades so it even out. I noticed you mentioned nady, year grteat trade perez and a shot hernadez for nady, great trade. Johan Santana, great trade. They are paying this guy 22 mil a year which is the highest paid pitcher by far in baseball and unless i'm watching something else he hasn't even come close to pitching like the best pitcher in baseball. There are plenty more negative things I could bring up but I'm not wasting my time.
Nowhere in this apology does he apologize to the fans. He's called us racists, he's implied that we're too stupid to understand him or to appreciate him and I, for one, resent this mightily.
The Mets never could beat the Braves. BUT, we can beat the Yankees. I find it painful to watch this team play, field, hit. They seem to be phoning it in. To me they are all overpaid & unproductive. But, they'll draw those big salaries just the same. Like I tell everybody, it's not easy being a Met fan, and lately it's down right painful. Willy seems to have lost this team, and I don't think he can change anything. There is no leadership, except, for Billy Wagner who calls it like he sees it. I agree with him. Come on guys, if you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen. Shape up or ship out.