Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Paintball Juice
Paintball Juice
Randolph, who turns 54 next month, was looking forward to participating in the final All-Star game at Yankee Stadium as a coach of Rockies manager Clint Hurdle, but Minaya robbed the Brooklyn native – and longtime Yankee -- of that opportunity. Randolph, the 18th manager of the Mets, ends his Flushing career with a 302-253 record and the second-best winning percentage (.544) in franchise history behind only Davey Johnson (.588). He had roughly $3.35 million remaining on his contract, which ran through 2009.
Before Monday's game, Randolph again faced another round of questions regarding his job status and that of his coaches. It had become a routine for Randolph only 10 weeks into this season and had started to overshadow everything else involved with the club, a media obsession that he loathed – but had learned to handle better and better in his final days.
"We spend so much time talking about all this extra-curricular stuff, man, and it's like, this team just needs to focus on playing winning baseball," Randolph said Monday afternoon. "That's the way we started out spring training and that should be the main focus here. It's unfortunate, but that's the way it should be."
As for Peterson, the man once dubbed as the Mets' "CEO of pitching," his legacy stands somewhere between the promise to fix Victor Zambrano "in 10 minutes" to the progress he has made more recently with young pitchers like Oliver Perez, John Maine and Mike Pelfrey. On Monday, Pelfrey wrapped his fourth straight solid outing by beating the Angels for his first victory since April 15. Afterward, Pelfrey was asked what Peterson had meant to the staff.
"Rick and I have a good relationship," Pelfrey said before the firings. "It's unfortunate that it's come to this. I think there would be a lot of guys that would be upset. But on the other side of it, it's a business and it's out of our control. We don't make those decisions. I think there's definitely guys in here that support him and back him up. It's kind of like the whole team, we're like a family and we stick together. But in the end, if they feel like they need to make a move, we don't make that decision."
Randolph, who turns 54 next month, was looking forward to participating in the final All-Star game at Yankee Stadium as a coach of Rockies manager Clint Hurdle, but Minaya robbed the Brooklyn native – and longtime Yankee -- of that opportunity. Randolph, the 18th manager of the Mets, ends his Flushing career with a 302-253 record and the second-best winning percentage (.544) in franchise history behind only Davey Johnson (.588). He had roughly $3.35 million remaining on his contract, which ran through 2009.
Before Monday's game, Randolph again faced another round of questions regarding his job status and that of his coaches. It had become a routine for Randolph only 10 weeks into this season and had started to overshadow everything else involved with the club, a media obsession that he loathed – but had learned to handle better and better in his final days.
"We spend so much time talking about all this extra-curricular stuff, man, and it's like, this team just needs to focus on playing winning baseball," Randolph said Monday afternoon. "That's the way we started out spring training and that should be the main focus here. It's unfortunate, but that's the way it should be."
As for Peterson, the man once dubbed as the Mets' "CEO of pitching," his legacy stands somewhere between the promise to fix Victor Zambrano "in 10 minutes" to the progress he has made more recently with young pitchers like Oliver Perez, John Maine and Mike Pelfrey. On Monday, Pelfrey wrapped his fourth straight solid outing by beating the Angels for his first victory since April 15. Afterward, Pelfrey was asked what Peterson had meant to the staff.
"Rick and I have a good relationship," Pelfrey said before the firings. "It's unfortunate that it's come to this. I think there would be a lot of guys that would be upset. But on the other side of it, it's a business and it's out of our control. We don't make those decisions. I think there's definitely guys in here that support him and back him up. It's kind of like the whole team, we're like a family and we stick together. But in the end, if they feel like they need to make a move, we don't make that decision."
