Tag: Billy Wagner

Lupica On Mets Racial Divide

Last night the Daily News website published a new column from Mike Lupica on the Mets so-called racial divide. If you listen to WFAN or other sports talk radio shows, this column doesn’t contain any new information that you haven’t already heard. Omar Minaya gave Lupica some quotes denying that there’s a rift in the clubhouse. No surprise there.

Personally, I don’t believe that there is this rift that we’ve heard about. Paul LoDuca was one of the people that publicly raised the issue last season. Nobody ever accused him of being particularly perceptive or bright though. I wouldn’t use LoDuca as my barometer for anything. He exercised very poor judgment on several occasions while with the Mets and there was evidence on Facebook to prove it.

Billy Wagner’s comments about Carlos Delgado disappearing from the clubhouse after a Mets loss were also tied to the so-called rift. But I don’t understand that. It was one person talking about another person. That’s all.

Rockies Drop Mets 6-5 In 13 Innings

A lot happened for the Mets in this game and today:

  • Willie Randolph may be on the verge of being fired
  • Omar Minaya showed up in Colorado and gave Willie cautious support
  • Gary Carter threw his hat in the ring to become the next Mets manager
  • Marlon Anderson left the game with what appeared to be an injured hamstring
  • Billy Wagner blew his second save of the season, and gave up his first earned run of the season to send the game to extra innings
  • Jose Reyes inexplicably got picked off second base after hitting a double in the tenth inning
  • More inexplicably, Yorvit Torrealba got caught trying to steal third in the bottom of the tenth inning; he’s overzealous in his attempt at revenge on the Mets for not signing him this off-season
  • Oliver Perez walked eight batters but managed to pitch into the sixth inning
  • Scott Schoenweiss looked good for two innings
  • Aaron Heilman takes the loss in his second inning of work
  • The Mets lose their fifth straight game

The losing continues for another day. At least Omar Minaya is in Colorado to figure out what exactly is going wrong for this team. I’m sure that we’ll hear a lot more about this when the team gets back to New York. Hopefully, the Mets won’t embarrass themselves on regional Fox coverage of the game tomorrow.

Box score

Video Highlights

Randolph In Damage Control Mode

Source: Flickr by alpineinc

New York Mets manager Willie Randolph spent the morning doing damage control. He back-tracked from his comments that his problems should be blamed on Mets television network Sports Net New York (SNY) and racism by Mets fans.

Randolph’s story changed completely this morning blaming an under performing Mets team for his problems. He says that it’s all about wins and loses not racism now. Oh, and he’s not blaming SNY anymore either.

Randolph says that his comments about racism were made in a “tongue in cheek” manner. He says that he was speaking in generalities that racism exists in this country.

My take on this is that Randolph is being dishonest and stupid. He wouldn’t have said the things that he did if he didn’t believe them. That’s dishonest. Suddenly he became media saavy today so he’s trying to save face. Continue reading “Randolph In Damage Control Mode”

Santana, Mets Top Yankees 7-4

Johan Santana went 7.2 innings for a much needed Mets win today. Willie Randolph might have needed this win more than anyone else to retain his job. As usual, Santana gave up some long balls to Derek Jeter, Jason Giambi, and Bobby Abreu. But he powered through to keep the Mets in the game. That’s been his MO this season.

On offense, David Wright and Carlos Beltran had three hits each. Jose Reyes and Wright homered off Kyle Farnsworth in the three run seventh inning that blew the game open for the Mets.

Billy Wagner came in for Santana in the bottom of the eighth to get an unusual four out save. Wagner has said that he doesn’t like to pitch more than one inning but after the last week, the Mets needed to lock down this win.

Box score

Video Highlights

Video: Billy Wagner Calling Out Teammates

The news is out today that the Mets players are holding a players only meeting to hash out the problems that were brought to a head yesterday. In addition, it’s being reported that Billy Wagner has apologized to Carlos Delgado today and didn’t mean to single him out. Watch his post game comments below and the reaction from reporters Adam Rubin and Kevin Kernan.

http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/player.swf?mediaId=3399639