NEW YORK (AP) -Willie Randolph said a “weird chill” went through him once he realized general manager Omar Minaya was about to oust him as manager of the New York Mets in a California hotel suite.
“’Omar, are you firing me?’ I asked. He looked away for a minute and then met my eyes.”
Randolph wrote a first-person account of his dismissal in Friday’s Daily News, under the front-page headline “How They Fired Me!”
Randolph and Minaya spoke after the Mets defeated the Los Angeles Angels on Monday night. Randolph expected the conversation to be about the possible firing of pitching coach Rick Peterson and first base coach Tom Nieto.
“Omar went on and on, looking very uncomfortable, this weird chill started to course through my body. I could feel myself going cold. He kept talking, almost stammering, and the chill got worse,” Randolph wrote. “Suddenly, it occurred to me that maybe he was talking about me. Maybe I was the one about to get whacked.”
Randolph said the two spoke two days before the flight to California and he was reassured. But the general manager finally acknowledged what he was going to do when they talked in the hotel.
“Yeah, I’m going to make a move,” he said. “It’s a hard decision, but I have to make it.”
Randolph wrote that he thanked Minaya for the chance to manage the Mets since 2004. Minaya then handed Randolph an envelope with a copy of his contract, saying to review it with his agent.
Randolph said the contract outlines not saying anything detrimental about the team or “I might jeopardize the rest of the money I have coming to me.”
Randolph was set to earn $2 million this season and is owed $2.25 million in 2009. It’s unclear if Randolph’s bylined story will have any bearing on what he is due.
The Mets, who made an epic collapse last season, were 35-36 entering Friday night’s game at Colorado. Randolph called the team “maddeningly inconsistent” the last year and a half.
“If I want to take credit for 2006 – when I felt we were the best team in baseball and our season ended one hit short of the World Series – then I have to take the hit for what happened since,” he wrote.
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