It’s impossible to discuss New York baseball without mentioning the Yankees AND the Mets. They’re inextricably linked, going back to Casey Stengel. In my opinion, Mike Lupica and William Goldman, in their superb and hilarious book, “Wait ‘Til Next Year,” – which is unfortunately out-of-print now – did the best job of describing the differences of the two teams and not only how they perceive themselves, but how they want their fans and the media to perceive them.

That is, of course, if you believe in the adage that perception is reality.

I got to thinking about this in the 72 hours since Willie Randolph’s unceremonious dismissal, and instantly compared it to Joe Torre’s resignation last winter. Both situations were mishandled by their respective former employers. Both proved to be high-caliber public relations gaffes. Both men, through the professional way that they handled losing their jobs, elicited sympathy from the media that was simultaneously channeled into anger at the Yankees and Mets. With the Randolph situation, the blunder was viewed as another in a long line of managerial miscues in Queens. The Times’s William C. Rhoden went so far as to proclaim that the Mets are “again the subject of national derision.”

That’s the perception. I’m a believer in the adage.

YANKEES – JOE TORRE

·         The Yankees were coming off a 12^th straight playoff berth under Torre but a third straight loss in the Division Series. When the expectation is to win a World Series and anything less is viewed as a failure, despite the trials and tribulations of getting to the playoffs, the effort wasn’t good enough.

·         Torre, up for a new contract, received a one-year offer from the Yankees that included a paycut, but was laced with incentives provided the team won the division, then each subsequent round of the playoffs, and the World Series. Torre considered the Yankees’ offer an insult, which he didn’t need as an incentive to win. Bob Costas jumped all over this and made it a hit point on his HBO show.

·         Torre resigned. Every local news media outlet staked out his house to get a glimpse of him in advance of his closing press conference, which YES broadcast live. Torre, after a brief statement, fielded questions for more than an hour.

·         The local beat writers and columnists had choice words for Randy Levine and other members of the Yankees’ front office. And while the reaction to Torre’s leaving was mixed, the consensus was that he was one of the greatest managers in team history, and was the perfect fit for this city and this team, particularly in the savvy way he managed the media circus on a daily basis. In short, he respected the writers and reporters, and the feeling was mutual.

METS – WILLIE RANDOLPH

·         Presided over a team that lost a 7 1/2 –game lead in the final two weeks of the regular season to miss the playoffs. With roughly the same team returning, save the addition of Johan Santana, expectations were high.

·         A slow start, plus various incidents in which Randolph let his true feelings about race emerge — taking umbrage to the coverage on SNY — led to rumors of his firing.

·         The Mets held a press conference two weeks ago to say that Randolph would not be fired.

·         The Mets, after a 3-3 homestand and a double-header split with Texas, fly out to Anaheim to play the Orange County Angels who Claim To Be From Los Angeles to Reap More TV Dollars in the LA Market.

·         GM Omar Minaya uncharacteristically flies out to Anaheim, unannounced, with the decision having been made to fire Randolph, pitching coach Rick Peterson and first base coach Tom Nieto. Following the Mets’ victory Monday, he calls them into a room at the team hotel and informs them of the decision.

·         Minaya claims it was his decision, but it doesn’t help change the thought that the Wilpons and Minaya had Randolph fly to California and be fired there in order to avoid the intense scrutiny at home. In fact, it may have made it worse. Wednesday’s Daily News backpage of a frowning Mr. Met with the headline MEET THE MESS said it all.

·         Randolph wishes the Mets well, is thankful for the opportunity to have managed the team.

The media’s job now is to highlight the facts and present them as they come to the fore. There has been and will continue to be analysis of the situation for as long as the Mets continue to struggle. If they turn it around, you might see comparisons to the Billy Martin-Bob Lemon switch in 1978.

But that also comes back to Willie Randolph. 

The public face on how the Mets treated Randolph – if there were rumors surrounding his job security at the beginning of the year, why not fire him after the collapse last season? – is another example of the Mets demonstrating why they’re considered the “other” team in New York. They’re not unlike the New York Football Jets in that, organizationally, no matter how hard they try, they mismanage various events to inspire anger and hurt among the media and fan base.

Not that the Yankees and Giants are without their flaws. However, but in my observations, bungled organizational matters are forgotten with the on-field product. Regarding Torre, Yankees fans, while they may agree on his resignation coming at the right time – and even that the offer was an insult, it appears they’ve forgiven the Yankees’ brass for the way it was handled. Mets fans will hurt for a long time, and the media will perpetuate that hurt unless the organization does something to fix it. 

That’s where the differences lie between the Mets and the Yankees.

Variety has a wonderful new issue out celebrating 50 years of the Dodgers being in L.A. Our good pal Jon Weisman has his talented finger prints all over this one. I contributed two pieces to the issue–one, my picks for the ten best baseball movies of them all, another, a sidebar on ten memorable baseball scenes in non-baseball movies. Let me know which baseball flicks you think were robbed. Also, give me some more examples of good baseball scenes in non-baseball movies. There are many more of them than decent baseball films. I didn’t even mention the Mantle-Maris scene in that old Doris Day movie, or the grenade-thrower from "Under Fire" who loved Dennis "El Presidente" Martinez.  Or the softball game in "Gung Ho."  Or…

The Yankees extended their winning streak to seven games by completing a three-game sweep of the San Diego Padres yesterday afternoon. Joba Chamberlain got the start and turned in his first truly dominant major league start as he struck out nine Padres in 5 2/3 innings, allowing just one run on four hits and three walks.

The run came in the fourth when Brian Giles led off with a single, was pushed to second by a walk to Adrian Gonzalez, and scored when Tony Clark, hitting from the left side, hit a flare to the line in shallow left that hopped into the stands for a ground-rule double. Prior to that, Chamberlain worked himself into a bases-loaded jam in the second, but struck out Scott Hairston, got an out at home from a wild pitch, and struck out Khalil Greene to end the inning. The play on Gonzalez came when Chamberlain skipped a pitch past Jose Molina, then raced home to cover the plate. Molina gathered the ball and fired to Chamberlain, who actually set up to block the plate and got the tag down on Gonzalez before the Padres first baseman was able to get his foot around him to the dish. Chamberlain didn’t allow a hit in any of his other innings and ended his outing with a pair of strikeouts. Had he been more efficient, he could have gone deeper, as he had retired seven of his last eight batters when he hit 100 pitches.

Fortunately the Yankee bullpen did its job. The Yanks had tied the score in the bottom of the fifth when Melky Cabrera walked, stole second and third, and scored on a Molina sac fly. Jose Veras got the final out of the sixth in relief of Chamberlain, then in the bottom of that inning, Derek Jeter singled, stole second, moved to third on a Bobby Abreu groundout to the right side, and scored on an Alex Rodriguez single. Veras pitched around a pair of walks in the seventh. Kyle Farnsworth pitched around an Adrian Gonzalez single in the eighth, and, once again, Mariano Rivera struck out the side in the ninth. Rivera has struck out 25 men in his last 16 innings.

It was a clean, crisp game, and a rewarding 2-1 victory for the Yankees, though it would have been nice if Chamberlain had picked up the win for his efforts. With the win, the Yankees became the eighth team in baseball to reach 40 wins. Next up: Dusty Baker’s Reds.

The Yankees have scored a minimum of eight runs in their last four games and are on a six-game winning streak. Today they send Joba Chamberlain to the mound and will face a far less heralded rookie in Josh Banks.

The Yankees have actually seen Banks before, as his first two major league appearances came in relief for the Blue Jays last year against the Yankees. In his debut in Toronto, Banks retired Robinson Cano, Melky Cabrera, and Johnny Damon in order. A week and a half later in the Bronx, he gave up a run on a walk to Hideki Matsui, a Robinson Cano single, and a Jose Molina double (he also saw Cabrera and Damon a second time, striking out Melky and walking Johnny).

Banks posted a 6.80 ERA in triple-A this year, was claimed off waivers by the Padres in late April, and snuck into the major league roster after both Chris Young and Jake Peavy went down with injuries. The 25-year-old righty started out in the bullpen, but after pitching six shutout innings in the Padres 18-inning win over the Reds on May 25, he was granted a rotation spot, which he nailed down with a complete game victory over the Giants in his first start and a 2-1 win over the Mets in his second.

A command and control pitcher with marginal stuff, Banks hasn’t walked a man in 20 innings since entering the rotation, and has been extremely efficient with his pitches, needing just 101 for that complete game and not topping 77 in either of two six-inning outings. That makes him an interesting contrast to Chamberlain, who has filthy stuff, but has struggled with walks since moving into the rotation, and can thus use up a lot of pitches rather quickly. Joba’s peripherals went backwards against the Astros in his last start, but despite his four walks, he was cruising along at 89 pitches through six when his turn in the batting order came due, thus ending his outing there. This afternoon, the limits will finally be off . . . mostly. I’m sure the Yankees won’t want him to throw more than 100 pitches, but that’s a respectable limit for any rookie, and Joe Girardi won’t have to pinch-hit for him. For all the hype that has come before, this afternoon should mark Chamberlain’s true debut as a full-fledged American League starting pitcher.

Dayn Perry has a new blog.  In his latest post, Dayn raves about Michael Lewis’ long piece about Cuban baseball in the new issue of Vanity Fair.  Perry writes, "I can say, without exaggeration, that it may be the finest example of long-form sports journalism I’ve ever read."  That’s enough of a recommendation for me.  Sold.      

Giorgio Morandi is one of my favorite painters.  He was a little old Italian guy who almost excusively painted still life pictures.  They are humble and deeply satisfying–he’s a painter’s painter.  Even though the subject matter is traditional, his pictures tackle space, form and composition just like the great modern abstract painters.

The reason I mention him, is because looking at his drawings and paintings is a simple but cherished pleasure for me.  And last night was filled with simple pleasures. It started when I arrived home with a dozen white roses for my wife.  I got caught in the rain and was soaking wet but didn’t mind a bit.  When the rain stopped, we saw a rainbow outside of our apartment window in the Bronx.  Later, a full yellow moon beamed high in the black night.  The weather was crisp and unseasonably cool, almost too good to be true.  

At the Stadium, there was Robinson Cano, who is really starting to swing the bat well, and Joe Girardi seeking out Melky Cabrera on the bench after Melky lined-out in the second inning, then offering him words of encouragement.  Later, Melky made a head-first slide into second that looked more like a belly flop into a swimming pool.  It was a potentially reckless play but one that gave his teammates a good laugh. 

There was the joy of watching one of the all-time greats in fine form.  Alex Rodriguez stole a base, made a wonderful throw to end the fourth inning and crushed a solo home run off of Jake Peavy.   David Cone, who just keeps getting better, looser, funnier, John Flaherty and Michael Kay provided entertaining and informative commentary throughout.  At one point, Kay mentioned that the demonstrative Peavy does not curse and he asked Cone if he ever had any teammates that did not swear.  "None that I trusted," said Cone.

There was pleasure to be found in the Yankees not folding, even after Edwar Ramirez gave up two solo homers and Kyle Farnsworth gave up one of his own.  What makes a fan feel better than insurance runs?  Uh, Johnny Damon’s doing pretty well these days, ain’t he?  And there was Mo, of course, getting a brother-to-brother double play to end the game.  Finally, there was the pleasure of watching the game on-line with the Banterites, who are not only insightful but funny.  Diana had the best line of the night, even though she invoked one of those dreadful 80s pop songs that stick in your head for days:

We can score when we want to
We can kick your team’s behind
Cause your team can’t score and if they can’t score
Well they’re no threat to mine

The Yanks looked they were going to waltz to another easy win in the early innings of last night’s game. Darrell Rasner cruised through the first two frames, striking out four (three of them looking) and the Bombers plated three runs against Jake Peavy. However, Rasner struggled in the third, walking three, giving up two runs, and getting the final out on a drive to deep center with the bases loaded. That made a game out of it at 3-2 Yanks.

Alex Rodriguez killed a Jake Peavy pitch dead to make it 4-2 in the bottom of the inning, and the Yanks made Peavy work enough that, coming off an elbow injury, he was pulled after four innings and 93 pitches. The Yanks then added another run in the fifth against former Red Sock Bryan Corey when Rodriguez singled, stole second, and came around on a Jorge Posada single. Rasner walked five men in five innings after walking just three in his previous 42, and Edwar Ramirez came on to pitch the sixth and seventh. Ramirez set down the side in order in the sixth, striking out two, but with two outs in the seventh he gave back both insurance runs on back-to-back homers by Adrian Gonzalez and Brian Giles.

Homers were Edwar’s big bugaboo in his major league debut last year, but he had only allowed one in his previous 29 innings this year in the majors and minors combined, so, despite the flashbacks, I’m willing to credit Gonzalez and Giles here. After all, they were the two guys I warned you about in my series preview. After the game, Joe Girardi brushed off those homers, both of which came on fastballs down and over the plate to the lefty batters. Of course, he also brushed off the leadoff homer Kyle Farnsworth gave up in the eighth despite the fact that Farnsworth is allowing 2.5 homers per nine innings on the season. To Farnsworth’s credit, he had been homer free in his previous seven outings/innings, and on the year, just six of the batters he has faced who haven’t homered have scored. The Farnsworth homer was the first in the major leagues by Padres prospect Chase Headley, who was called up before Tuesday night’s game and got to play his natural position last night in place of the defensively inferior Kevin Kouzmanoff.

The other good news on that homer is that it was preceded by two more Yankee runs, the latter of which was driven in by Rodriguez, who led the Yankee charge with a 3-for-4 night. After Farnsworth’s frame, the Yanks got Headley’s run back on a Wilson Betemit double (Betemit was also 3 for 4, but made an error at first base in the first and was caught stealing in the sixth) and a Johnny Damon single (Johnny was 3 for 5 with a successful steal).

Mariano Rivera came on in the ninth and gave up a leadoff double to Edgar Gonzalez (the elder Gonzalez’s second two-bagger of the night), but struck out Brian Giles and got the younger Gonzalez to hit a looper to Derek Jeter that doubled his big brother off second to seal the Yankees’ 8-5 win.

In other news, Hideki Matsui had his left knee drained and hopes to avoid the disabled list, but almost certainly won’t be in the lineup this afternoon as the Yankees go for their second straight sweep and seventh straight win.

In his last turn, Jake Peavy pitched six scoreless innings in his first start after an elbow-related DL stint. In his last turn, Darrell Rasner was beat severely about the head and neck by the typically mild-mannered Oakland A’s offense. Peavy needed just 72 pitches to get through those six innings against the Dodgers. He’ll likely be pulled before he hits 100 pitches today. Rasner, despite that beating, has still only allowed three homers and walked just six men in 42 major league innings this season, and hasn’t allowed a homer in any of his last three starts. Peavy was the best pitcher in baseball last year, but couldn’t deliver the Wild Card to San Diego in their one-game playoff against the Rockies. Rasner is 0-3 with a 6.35 ERA in his last three starts.

So there’s that.

Hideki Matsui’s left knee is hurting, so he sits tonight and will see a doctor tomorrow. I’m hoping his knee is just reacting to the wacky changes in atmospheric pressure. Here in New Jersey we’ve had different weather every two hours today. Cool and crisp like an early spring day. Downpour. Overcast and humid, but dry. Downpour. Sunny and hot like a perfect summer day. Downpour. It’s not raining now, but the sky is darkening and I can hear thunder in the distance (make that directly overhead . . . yikes!).

With Matsui out, Wilson Betemit will play first base while Jason Giambi moves to DH. In contrast to his persistent career-long split, Giambi has been a better hitter when not playing the field this year (.297/.458/.622 vs. 252/.383/.563). For those of you filling out All-Star ballots, the Big G leads AL first baseman in VORP this year and Alex Rodriguez, Johnny Damon, Giambi, and Matsui are all among the top dozen ALers in the stat.

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Pete Abraham’s game-post last night was chock-full-of-goodies, but my favorite part, a bit of information that my wife also shared with me (she learned it from S. Waldman on the radio), came from Ron Guidry, who called Chien-Ming Wang and told him, "You can pitch but you can’t run."

A Wocka, wocka, wocka. 

Cyd Charisse passed away yesterday.  A finer pair of legs have never graced the Silver Screen.  If you’ve never seen her work, I suggest you start with The Band Wagon and Singin in the Rain. 

Last night I got on the subway and stood next to two beefy, corn-fed couples.  They were young, blond, in their twenties, all wearing shorts, a sure sign that they are from out-of-town (it’s not that New Yorkers don’t wear shorts, we do, but in the summertime, suburbanites and tourists seem to almost exclusively wear shorts).  One of the guys had a tatoo on his leg.  They were talking loudly.  I turned to one of them and asked where they were from. 

"St. Louis.  How did you know we were from out-of-town?"

"Just a hunch." 

The foursome was headed up to the Stadium for their first, and only, trip to see the Yankees.  Next, they are going to Boston to catch the Cards play the Sox. 

I thought of them later in the evening as I was watching the game on TV.  What an ideal night to visit the old place.  Sure, it wasn’t a great game–the Padres inept performance made sure of that, as Cliff already noted–but the weather was gorgeous (not a rain drop in sight), Alex Rodriguez hit a bomb, Giambi hit two, including a real shot to left center, Robinson Cano got in some good hacks, and in a blow-out game, the out-of-towners were treated to a vintage three-K performance by Mariano Rivera.  There’s a Yankee Stadium memory for you, tension-free and made-to-order.

Rodriguez also made two nifty plays to his backhand side, showing off his strong arm in the process.  But it should also be noted that his Manny Ramirez impression in the seventh inning cost him his first triple of the season.  Rodriguez hit a line drive to straight away center and judging by the way he left the box, watching, jogging, he thought it was good enough for his second homer of the game.  Instead, he cruised into second and not third.  It’s a lot easier to see a player Cadillac-it when his team is up, 8-0.  Still, Chubb Rock could have been standing on third with his first triple since May 31st, 2006.

Rumor has it the Padres were actually on the field at Yankee Stadium last night, but there was little evidence of their presence. Andy Pettitte turned in his second straight dominant outing, tying his season high in strikeouts with nine, and the Bombers stomped on Randy Wolf, cruising to an uncontested 8-0 victory.

Alex Rodriguez and Jason Giambi got things going with solo homers in the second inning. Giambi then added a two-run shot in the fourth, setting the tone for a five-run inning that was aided by a wild pitch by Wolf and some sloppy play by Craig Stansberry at second base. The Yanks tacked one on in the eight against reliever Carlos Guevara. Meanwhile Jose Veras, Billy Traber (getting an inning ending groundout from Adrian Gonzalez with men on first and second in his return to the team), and Mariano Rivera, who hadn’t pitched since last Thursday and struck out the side in the ninth, nailed down the win.

With the win, the Yankees extended their season-best winning streak to five games. They have scored 29 runs in their last three games and haven’t allowed a run since the seventh inning of Saturday’s game in Houston. Tonight Darrell Rasner faces Jake Peavy, who is making just his second start since returning from an elbow injury. With the way this team is playing, I can’t wait for the first pitch.

San Diego Padres

2007 Record: 89-74 (.549)
2007 Pythagorean Record: 90-75 (.553)

2008 Record: 31-40 (.437)
2008 Pythagorean Record: 29-42 (.408)

Manager: Bud Black
General Manager: Kevin Towers

Home Ballpark (multi-year Park Factors): Petco Park (91/91)

Who’s Replacing Whom:

Tad Iguchi replaces Marcus Giles
Jody Gerut replaces Jim Edmonds, who replaced Mike Cameron
Edgar Gonzalez replaces Geoff Blum
Paul McAnulty inherits Jose Cruz Jr.’s playing time
Tony Clark replaces Russell Branyan
Justin Huber replaces Terrmel Sledge
Scott Hairston inherits Milton Bradley’s playing time
Michael Barrett is replacing Josh Bard (DL) in the lineup
Luke Carlin is filling in for Barrett on the bench
Edgar Gonzalez is replacing Tad Iguchi (DL) in the lineup
Craig Stansberry is filling in for Gonzalez on the bench
Randy Wolf replaces David Wells and Clay Hensley
Josh Banks replaces Justin Germano, Brett Tomko, and Jack Cassel
Cha Seung Baek is filling in for Chris Young (DL)
Bryan Corey replaces Doug Brocail
Mike Adams replaces Scott Linebrink and Joe Thatcher
Carlos Guevara is filling in for Kevin Cameron (DL)

25-man Roster

1B – Adrian Gonzalez (L)
2B – Edgar Gonzalez (R)
SS – Khalil Greene (R)
3B – Kevin Kouzmanoff (R)
C – Michael Barrett (R)
RF – Brian Giles (L)
CF – Jody Gerut (L)
LF – Paul McAnulty (L)

Bench:

S – Tony Clark (1B)
R – Justin Huber (OF)
R – Scott Hairston (OF)
R – Craig Stansberry (IF)
S – Luke Carlin (C)

Rotation:

R – Jake Peavy
R – Josh Banks
R – Cha Seung Baek
R – Greg Maddux
L – Randy Wolf

Bullpen:

R – Trevor Hoffman
R – Heath Bell
R – Cla Meredith
L – Justin Hampson
R – Bryan Corey
R – Mike Adams
R – Carlos Guevara

15-day DL: R – Tadahito Iguchi (2B), S – Josh Bard (C), R – Chris Young, L – Shawn Estes, R- Kevin Cameron
60-day DL: R – Mark Prior, R – Tim Stauffer

Typical Lineup:

L – Jody Gerut (L)
R – Edgar Gonzalez (2B)
L – Brian Giles (RF)
L – Adrian Gonzalez (1B)
R – Kevin Kouzmanoff (3B)
L – Paul McAnulty (LF)
R – Khalil Greene (SS)
R – Michael Barrett (C)

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Wait, thunderstorms are in the forecast here in New York…

There’s an old joke.  Uh, two elderly women are at a Catskills mountain resort, and one of ’em says: "Boy, the food at this place is really terrible."  The other one says, "Yeah, I know, and such small portions." Well, that’s essentially how I feel about life.  Full of loneliness and misery and suffering  and unhappiness, and it’s all over much too quickly.

–Alvy Singer.

Keep your head up, Willie.  The worst is over.  And we still love ya. 

Few things remind me of why I love New York City more than the great game of Double Dutch. 

Ya heard?

People say Tiger Woods is ungodly. I’d say his performance is often flat-out godly. During yesterday’s dramatic playoff at the U.S. Open, one of the TV commentators said that Tiger isn’t used to chasing someone this late in a Major.  The pressure is on Tiger, he said.  A friend, who is an avid golf fan, turned to me and said, "The pressure is always on the other guy because Tiger is relentless."

Today, Joe Posnanski wonders what drives Woods and notices that there aren’t many telling anecdotes about the living legend.  Michael Jordan’s competitiveness is well-documented, but Woods is almost like an android, he’s so contained, so controlled.  But I thought this was revealing. Woods told reporters: 

"This week had a lot of doubt to it, to be honest with you.  I hadn’t walked 18 holes until the first round here since Augusta.  You know, you keep playing.  You just keep going, keep going forward.

All my buddies, when we were working out, used to always say ‘For.’  How many more reps do we have? ‘For.  Forever.’  And that’s the idea.  You just keep going.  There’s no finish line."

I think Woods is simply one of the most focused, disciplined, single-minded champions of all time. He is relentless. That’s why the pressure is always on the other guy. I’m sure he doesn’t let anything get in the way of his game–family, friends, even business. It doesn’t make me want to hang out with him. How could a guy like that be fun to have a conversation with? But it’s hard not to marvel at his drive, nerve, and his continued excellence in the world of golf.

In his blog yesterday, Rob Neyer looks at the Yankees’ pitching options now that Chien-Ming Wang won’t be around for a good, long while:

One thing I’m sure about: the Yankees aren’t punting. Not now.

I don’t believe that Dan McCutchen is ready. He was excellent in nine Double-A starts this spring, but has only five Triple-A starts and generally hasn’t been able to keep the ball out of the air this season. At 25, he’s a prospect but not a savior.

Ian Kennedy? He’s on the DL, but throwing without pain. Kei Igawa has a 3.73 in Triple-A this season, and a 6.75 career ERA in the majors. Jeff Karstens has a 5.65 career ERA in the majors, and a 6.11 ERA in Triple-A this season. Dan Giese? What a story. At 31, he’s finally getting his shot and he’s getting it with the Yankees. If he really could pitch effectively in the majors, you’d think he’d have done it before now. But stranger things have happened.

Right now the Yankees don’t seem to have any attractive options. But the same was true six weeks ago, right? And Darrell Rasner stepped in, and he’s given the Yankees five quality starts (out of seven). Can the Yankees really catch the Red Sox and/or the Rays with a rotation that includes Chamberlain, Darrell Rasner and (for example) Giese? Probably not. But they have to try, and will.

(And the same goes for the Indians, who still have a fighting chance and aren’t trading C.C. Sabathia anytime soon.)

Isn’t this guy looking for work?

Hey, our boy Bouton prolly still has some life in his knuckler…

While you were sleeping…

The Mets beat the Angels in California last night. Then, they fired Willie Randolph, pitching coach Rick Peterson and first-base coach Tom Nieto. Jerry Manuel is the new manager of the Mets.

This was coming. We all knew that. Still, it never ceases to amaze me just how these things are handled. I suppose the Met brass wanted to do this with the team out of town, do it so late in the night that it’d miss the morning papers–as if that really matters these days. I can’t call it. But it just seems like a cockamamie way to handle the situation. Why make Randolph schlep out to California in the first place?

How about this for an Odd Couple?

Tom Friend has a long piece on an unlikely friendship over at ESPN.com.

It was such a nice Yankee weekend too, wasn’t? That is, until the injury to Chien-Ming Wang. Over at Under the Knife, Will “Juicespin” Carroll reports:

Consider this another point for the DH rule, because the Yankees’ ace sprained his foot running the bases on Sunday and looks to be headed for the DL. Early reports indicated that Wang heard a “pop” on the top of his foot, a symptom that New Yorkers should be familiar with. If you don’t remember that Brian Bruney is already out for the season with a Lisfranc sprain, you might remember that missed season by the recently retired Giant speedrusher Michael Strahan. (Here in Indianapolis, it’s Dwight Freeney that comes to mind.) If Wang has injured the Lisfranc ligament or, worse, broken a bone, he’s done for the season for all intents and purposes, putting the Yankees in a terrible position as far as their rotation. With Wang on crutches, the team is unlikely to wait and see on this one, and will likely push him to the DL. The calls are already coming out to go after C.C. Sabathia, but the Yankees are going to need immediate answers. Ian Kennedy is making progress, but isn’t close enough to fill in for Wang’s next scheduled start, leaving Jeff Karstens or Kei Igawa as the most likely fill-ins. We should find out more on how serious Wang’s foot problem is in the next few days once the swelling is down enough for clear images. On the assumption that this is a Lisfranc sprain, I’m setting his DXL at three months.

And you thought we’d seen the last of Kei Igawa.

Update

Pete Abe has the latest. The news is not good. Looks like Wang could be done for the year.