New York Noise

So, it seems like New York baseball has been making a lot of noise lately. Both the Yankees and Mets have had tumultuous seasons so far and expectedly, there's been a lot of talk coming out of the Bronx and Queens. We'll start with the lesser story from my Yanks...

The big news out of Yankee camp is the loss of Chien-Ming Wang for over 2 months due to an injury he suffered running the bases in Houston. Reacting to the loss, Hank Steinbrenner let off quip in a gem of a rant:

"My only message is simple. The National League needs to join the 21st century," Steinbrenner said in Tampa, Fla. "They need to grow up and join the 21st century."

"Am I [mad] about it? Yes," Steinbrenner added. "I've got my pitchers running the bases, and one of them gets hurt. He's going to be out. I don't like that, and it's about time they address it. That was a rule from the 1800s."

Ok, so I guess I understand why a lot of people were turned off by that quote, but I honestly think it's hilarious, both in its dumbness and trueness. The first part of his quote, I totally agree with. Being a Yankee fan and mainly following the AL for many years, I do think that the NL should adopt the DH. Pitchers (generally) can't hit and I'm a fan of giving a position player more opportunities to play.

Now the second part of that rant is a little stupid. Wang's injury was pretty much a fluke. It's not like he strained a muscle running the bases, he totally messed up his foot in a way that I don't even get. For him to go say that they need to address it now because one of his guys goes down is pretty stupid. The Baseball Tonight crew was dead on when (I think it was Kruk) said that you wouldn't hear a peep out of him if that was Josh Beckett that messed up his foot. Was it a rule from the 1800's, yes it was. However, the DH spot has only been around for a little more than 30 years. So all in all, I relatively dumb rant, but an entertaining one.


Now, on to the bigger news out of Queens, the firing of Willie Randolph. The Mets couldn't have handled this any worse than they did. Did Randolph deserve to be fired? He absolutely did. Personally, I though he was great as a 3rd base/bench coach for the Yankees but really did question his capabilities of being a manager. He came through early (he has the second best winning % of any Mets manager) but really faded off of late. The team just didn't respond to his low key demeanor and it showed. Late inning mental lapses plagued this team over the past calendar year. It's really amazing that Randolph wasn't fired sooner. This team needs a guy that will light a fire. Now, the way he got fired was ridiculous.

3am eastern time with a press release? For what they put Randolph through, he deserved a bit more respect than that. Not only that, but it was after a win. What were they waiting for? Just put him out of his misery. Mets GM Omar Minaya showed a complete lack of guts for dragging this out the way he did. He has also pieced together a heck of a shoddy team that can't score runs. Ok, I honestly think I just stopped caring in the middle of writing this post but the point remains. I'll leave it in middle-school terms. Minaya is retarded and should be fired alongside Willie.