Doing him a favor

There's an old saying that goes, "Nothing good ever happens after midnight." For Willie Randolph, that line should be amended to "nothing good ever happens after 3 a.m." It was at 3:15 a.m., after a victory over the Angels and a long flight from New York to Los Angeles that the Mets' brass finally decided that Willie Randolph shouldn't be the manager any more. No time like the present, I suppose. Why wait until the sun comes up when the job can be taken care of at 3:15 a.m. like a weirdo fraternity prank or Saddam's hanging. Why do it in New York when you can make the guy fly 3,000 miles across the country, make him manage a baseball game and then roust him out of bed at 3:15 a.m.

Yeah, I know the Mets are in California and it was shortly after midnight when the Mets' brain trust capped Willie, but it was 3:15 a.m. back in New York where, one can assume, the brass hoped they could sneak the news in well after the newspaper deadlines and the television programming had played the National Anthem to end its day of programming (do they still do that?).

But apparently the little thing that we like to call The Internets never goes off the air. That meant the Mets' big news spread through the east coast like a smoldering plastic bag filled with dog crap.

Think of all the things that get normal folks up at 3:15 a.m. like a dog barking, or a wrong number telephone call. Maybe one of the kids has a nightmare and wakes you up or maybe you get a 3:15 a.m. hankering for some organic granola and flax with a banana and soy milk... hey, it happens more than one could imagine.

But not Willie Randolph. Not with the Mets. At least he got a chartered flight to Los Angeles and was tucked beneath the down blanket in a four-star hotel when they shook him awake to tell him that the nightmare was finally over.

Willie doesn't have to manage the Mets anymore.

*** The best part of the whole Willie circus? According to reports, some of the players learned about the news not from team sources, but instead from text messages from writers.

Phillies vs. Mets on Monday?

Cole Hamels is in the bullpen warming up, the fans are filtering into the sold-out ballpark and the oppressive humid has finally broken and given way to a decidedly autumnal tinge.

It feels like playoff baseball time[1].

Meanwhile, the word filtered down from New York City that despite all of the bluster to the contrary, the Mets have resigned themselves to participating in a playoff game in Philadelphia on Monday. If such an event were to occur, people will need tickets for the game. So when and if a playoff game is scheduled for Monday and/or Tuesday, the Phillies announced they will sell tickets.

Here’s the Phillies’ announcement:

In order to prepare and plan, the Phillies are announcing that tickets will go on public sale once the tie-breaking game has been deemed necessary.

Full season ticket holders (81 games) have been mailed their locations. Season ticket holders and E-Mail Club members will be offered the opportunity to purchase tie-breaker tickets in advance of the public sale.

Tickets may be purchased on Sunday (once a game has been deemed necessary) via the following outlets:

ONLINE: www.phillies.com.

When ordering via the internet, the Phillies suggest choosing the convenient “print at home” option. Access to the internet is available 24 hours a day.

PHONE CENTER: (215) 463-1000. Again, once the game has been deemed necessary, the Phone Center will be open Sunday until 10:00 p.m. . . . Phone lines will open again at 8:00 a.m. on Monday.

The Phillies suggest fans choose the “print at home” option or pick up their will call tickets well in advance of the game, either Sunday night or early Monday morning.

IN PERSON: Two Citizens Bank Park locations: (1) First Base Gate ticket windows (on Pattison Avenue) and (2) West ticket windows (on Citizens Bank Way, adjacent to the Majestic Clubhouse Store). Hours: Sunday until 10:00 p.m. The ticket windows will reopen at 8:00 a.m. on Monday.

***

Speaking of the New York Mets, there was a helluva quote in the Oct. 1, 2007 edition of the New York Observer from a story written by John Koblin. In the story headlined, “Gutsy Mr. Metsie,” all about how Mets’ skipper Willie Randolph is dealing with his team’s “September Swoon,” veteran lefty pitcher Tom Glavine is on the record saying:

“Sometimes when you’re a team as talented as we are—I don’t know if I’d use the word ‘bored,’ but I guess you can get complacent sometimes. You don’t pay attention to details every now and then because you do have a ton of talent and think you can on most days do everything you wanna do.”

So the Mets are collapsing because they are so good? They haven’t been paying attention to details?

I wonder if their curiosity has been piqued now?

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[1] Not that most of us in the Phillies’ writing press corps actually knows what “playoff baseball” feels like. A lot of us have floated out into unchartered waters.

[2] a.k.a: a choke job of epic proportions