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**ordercigsnick** · 06-19-2008, 08:02 AM

Long time lurker, first time poster here.

I agree that the handling of Randolph's firing was brutal. And also nonsensical.

What I'd really really like to hear is for someone to ask Randolph if the whole scenario he just went through -- the daily "Willie-watch" -- brought back some bad memories? From when he was a young second baseman with the New York Yankees and his manager -- the late Billy Emanuel Martin -- went through a similar 'death watch'. Like with Randolph, game stories following a team win would begin "Manager Billy Martin's job is apparently safe for another 24 hours as the Yankees defeated the Cleveland Indians tonight at the Stadium."

Unlike Randolph, however, Martin pretty much asked for it. There was a feeling his manic managing style, very successful at first, had become counter-productive and that Martin was incapable of making adjustments. He had one way of doing things, take it or leave it. Worse, as the team struggled (just as the 2008 Mets have), Martin’s late night carousing, his heavy drinking, his continual feuding with (arguably) the team's most valuable player Reggie Jackson, could no longer be shrugged off merely as ‘Billy being Billy’. When Martin publicly called Jackson " a born liar" and followed it up by taunting owner George Steinbrenner, his short stormy tenure came to an abrupt and sudden end.

Back then, in the late 1970s, Randolph was considered one of the saner, more levelheaded members of a team known collectively as the "Bronx Zoo." He was Steady Willie. I wonder what eerie memories might’ve been called forth during his own time on a manager's 'death-watch'? Were there times when 1977 -- and Billy, George and Reggie -- didn't seem so long ago? That he’d somehow become entangled in a bizarre dream state that he could not awaken from?

When he was a young player watching (or possibly trying not to watch) Billy Martin twisting in the wind, did Randolph ever think, could he have even imagined, it would someday happen to him? But how could it, he was 'Steady Willie'.

At least Randolph seems to be taking it better, a lot better, than Billy Martin did.

06-19-2008, 08:02 AM	#9
ordercigsnick Join Date Nov 2005 Posts 335 Senior Member	Long time lurker, first time poster here. I agree that the handling of Randolph's firing was brutal. And also nonsensical. What I'd really really like to hear is for someone to ask Randolph if the whole scenario he just went through -- the daily "Willie-watch" -- brought back some bad memories? From when he was a young second baseman with the New York Yankees and his manager -- the late Billy Emanuel Martin -- went through a similar 'death watch'. Like with Randolph, game stories following a team win would begin "Manager Billy Martin's job is apparently safe for another 24 hours as the Yankees defeated the Cleveland Indians tonight at the Stadium." Unlike Randolph, however, Martin pretty much asked for it. There was a feeling his manic managing style, very successful at first, had become counter-productive and that Martin was incapable of making adjustments. He had one way of doing things, take it or leave it. Worse, as the team struggled (just as the 2008 Mets have), Martin’s late night carousing, his heavy drinking, his continual feuding with (arguably) the team's most valuable player Reggie Jackson, could no longer be shrugged off merely as ‘Billy being Billy’. When Martin publicly called Jackson " a born liar" and followed it up by taunting owner George Steinbrenner, his short stormy tenure came to an abrupt and sudden end. Back then, in the late 1970s, Randolph was considered one of the saner, more levelheaded members of a team known collectively as the "Bronx Zoo." He was Steady Willie. I wonder what eerie memories might’ve been called forth during his own time on a manager's 'death-watch'? Were there times when 1977 -- and Billy, George and Reggie -- didn't seem so long ago? That he’d somehow become entangled in a bizarre dream state that he could not awaken from? When he was a young player watching (or possibly trying not to watch) Billy Martin twisting in the wind, did Randolph ever think, could he have even imagined, it would someday happen to him? But how could it, he was 'Steady Willie'. At least Randolph seems to be taking it better, a lot better, than Billy Martin did.
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