Card-playing Coach

[Benjamin Grimm]

From Bill Madden's column in today's Daily News

Bill Madden wrote: That Randolph, despite his Brooklyn roots, community involvement and popularity in New York, has never been held in the same esteem as other successful managers is evidenced by the fact that Wilpon and GM Omar Minaya would allow him to name only one coach - and they unceremoniously fired that one, Rick Down, at midseason this year and replaced him with, of all people, Rickey Henderson. Henderson was one of the game's greatest players and he combined that with an engaging personality. But as a coach, his contributions have been minimal. Around the clubhouse, he is jokingly referred to as the card-playing coach, and those close to the situation say Randolph has had to bite his tongue every day when he arrives at the clubhouse only to see Henderson playing cards with the players. It should also not be forgotten that Minaya said the hiring of Henderson, former leadoff man/base-stealer extraordinaire, would especially be beneficial to Jose Reyes. Has there been anyone more disappointing (to use Wilpon's word) than Reyes these past six weeks?

[soupcan]

So what's Willie to do? Just win baby. Build that cache and eventually he'll get to pick his own staff.

I'm not so sure that HoJo wasn't the better choice as hitting coach anyway.

[Valadius]

I do hope Rickey's learned to put the cards away during certain situations.

[nymr83]

]...[Willie] has never been held in the same esteem as other successful managers ...

since when is he a "successful manager"? his first season they won the division with basically no competition. joe shmoe could have coached the team, it didn't matter. and they lost to an 82-80 team in the playoffs. good job willie!
this year he is presiding over a potentially historic collapse.

[Zvon]

[metsmarathon]

as much blame as could be heaped upon him for the collapse, an equal amount could be heaped upon him for (i hope) arresting it and turning the team back into a winner, no?

[MFS62]

You didn't post the writer's bio:

]Bill Madden joined the Daily News in 1978 after nine years at United Press International where he covered baseball, track and field and Olympics. He was the Daily News' Yankee beat writer from 1980-88 before becoming the News' national baseball columnist. In his 24 years with The News, Madden has broken numerous major baseball stories. He is the author of four books including "Pride of October: What It Was to Be Young and a Yankee," "Damned Yankees," in collaboration with Moss Klein of the Newark Star-Ledger, and two biographies of Don Zimmer.

Ya' gotta' wonder about a guy who feels it is necessary to write two boigraphies of Don Zimmer.
Later

[stevejrogers]

="MFS62"]You didn't post the writer's bio: ]Bill Madden joined the Daily News in 1978 after nine years at United Press International where he covered baseball, track and field and Olympics. He was the Daily News' Yankee beat writer from 1980-88 before becoming the News' national baseball columnist. In his 24 years with The News, Madden has broken numerous major baseball stories. He is the author of four books including "Pride of October: What It Was to Be Young and a Yankee," "Damned Yankees," in collaboration with Moss Klein of the Newark Star-Ledger, and two biographies of Don Zimmer. Ya' gotta' wonder about a guy who feels it is necessary to write two boigraphies of Don Zimmer. Later

COME ON! Zim is a national treasure!

[stevejrogers]

Actually a better question is, what the heck is Zimmer doing writing essentially the same book (with stuff on the 2003 ALCS and the reason he left the Yankees and joined Tampa) 3 years later?

2002


2005


Was there really a clamoring to hear Zimmer's side of the incident with Pedro along with why he was no longer employed by the Yankees?

Funny note, both books, while written by the same guy have different introductions by the manager who Zimmer was a member of the staff for that particular year.

Anyway, thread hijack over...

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

Just a hunch, but I don't think we're gonna see Rickey back as a coach next season.

[Guest Mendoza Line]

So, what's the job that Rickey isn't doing?

This is an honest question, not a rhetorical one. I don't know what a first-base coach is supposed to do (other than the obvious job of coaching first base), so it isn't clear to me how Rickey's card playing prevents him from doing it.

It's clear that Reyes has slumped over the past six weeks, but it's not clear that Rickey could have done anything to prevent that slump from happening.

[Guest Edgy DC]

There's a slump. Scapegoats are needed. Columns must be written. Newspapers must be sold.

[Theoldmole]

According to Curt Flood, the job of a first base coach is to say "Don't get picked off."

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

I think Rickey was brought in to give the appearance of doing for Reyes what they were doing for Wright by bringing in Johnson.

[Frayed Knot]

One coaching tidbit I read about a few weeks back involved the well-respected Texas hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo. The gist of the article (I forget the source but it was national rather than Met-specific) was that his contract runs out at an odd time - like upon the final day of the season rather than after the WS as is usual - thus making him the first 'coaching FA' of the off-season.

Jaramillo had a bout with cancer a year or so ago but is supposedly back healthy. He was also, you may recall, a one-time rumoured NYM manager candidate and with his Tex Ranger roots and Latin last name he'll no doubt be labled as another one of Omar's "obsessions".

All of which is just a long way of speculating that the whole dump-Down in favor of the Rickey/HoJo tandem was just to:
a) shake things up, and
mark time until a hitting coach with a better resume makes himself available.
HoJo, I'd guess, could still stay on in some capacity while Rickey gets shifted back to a ST/roving guy rather than a full-time dugout presence.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Johnny Dickshot wrote: I think Rickey was brought in to give the appearance of doing for Reyes what they were doing for Wright by bringing in Johnson.

I think he was brought in to do much more for Reyes (and Gomez and Milledge and maybe Fernando Martinez and Anderson Hernandez and other scat-backs we might have in the pipeline), but appearance is what we're left with.

[soupcan]

LoDuca gets a bit pissed off when asked about the card-playing coach.

Click on the first interview at the top of the page.

[Guest Edgy DC]

By the way, I don't think this...

Bill Madden wrote: ...the fact that Wilpon and GM Omar Minaya would allow him to name only one coach...

... is true.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Lo Duca: "What's in our locker room stays in our locker room."

It's an open locker room.

[Frayed Knot]

Madden was just on M&MD show, mostly about this column (didn't catch all of it).

- Says he did NOT talk directly to Willie about this (despite M&MD's insistance for 2 days that this article was virtual Willie dictation)
- Stands by implying that the front office is less than enamored with Willie although stops short of saying Omar feels that way. But Jeff's recent comments and Tony Bernazard's rathr public schmoozing with Acta can't be making Willie feel all that comfortable.
- Says that Willie's extension last winter was slow in coming given that they hired him with no mgr experience and asked him to become a face about the community and he did all that AND won a division title (soon to be 2?) and has been in first place virtually every day for the last 300 games or so.
- Stuck by his Rickey commnets despite LoDuca's dismissal of them



My only concern stems back to that Madden-penned take-out slide on then Met minor-league honcho Gary LaRoque (discussed widely here) in which he made numerous errors and stated various "facts" weren't at all seemingly because they fit into his pre-determined conclusion.
Madden's obviously been around forever and I'm sure has enough contacts to get the nuts and bolts of a brewing story if there is one. But I do wonder if he doesn't sometimes over-rely on those higher-up types he goes way back with and simply take their word as law instead of also spending some time in the clubhouse in an effort to see if the spin he's being given passes the smell test - which is probably where LoDuca's P.O.V. come from.

[Guest Edgy DC]

So help me out, is Madden right in saying that Randolph's whole staff save Down were pushed on Randolph? None were a Randolph selections?

Alomar wasn't a Randolph selection?

[Frayed Knot]

That's the way I understand it.
Which isn't to say that Willie doesn't like his coaches, only that they weren't necc his choice except for the one recently canned.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I thought he was all over hiring Alomar.

[Valadius]

I got the impression that Willie loves Alomar when I met them at Willie's charity auction.