Oh my, Omar

I've waited a bit to post on the firing of Willie Randolph. I don't know if the firing was deserved or not, but it seems the Mets have underachieved for some time now. They're still a fairly young team, and their pitching is somewhat untested for the bredth of a MLB season, so I think there are a lot of questions and concerns facing them in the first place. I'm not sure they were a World Series contender this year or not.

What has caught my interest is the backlash that Omar Minaya and the Mets front office is receiving for the way they handled the Randolph firing. He was canned well after midnight EST, as the Mets let him go after a game in Anaheim. The media has called the Mets lots of things regarding this approach to firing a manager. While it doesn't seem to be good business to fire someone in the middle of the night, what do the Mets lose by doing it? Relatively little. There will be little if no backlash from fans, and I'm guessing the next Mets managerial candidates will evaluate whether to take the job on factors other than what time Randolph was fired.

If anything, the media is upset because the firing occurred in the middle of the night, and they didn't have a chance to be first on the story. First is not always best in my mind. How a story is covered and delivered is more important. How a team fires its manager is not a big deal. The Mets can do as they please.