Watchdog

Jeff Torborg, a ghost of Mets managerial flops past, was on XM Satellite Radio Wednesday recalling his own awkward end:

“To this day, I don’t know if the Mets know quite how to fire their managers…I was fired at home, but I had not spoken to the general manager for four days prior to my firing…He originally would come down every night.

"When I was fired, I came to a host of cameras. It was suggested I come in through the bullpen. I said, ‘I’m not going to go in through the back door here...’ I woke up that morning listening to the news that I had been fired…I was not flown across country. I was attacked [by the media] outside Shea Stadium.

"It’s unbelievable to me…Willie has an impeccable reputation. Captain of the New York Yankees, that’s really something special, then a trusted coach for a number of years, now he takes the Mets and does, what I thought a terrific job…”

Torborg on his reaction to the owners telling him not to take his firing personally:

"It’s almost like you’re being patted on the head. Don’t make a comment that this is not personal…It’s certainly personal to the one who is losing his job and whose family is disrupted.”