A very sad day for anyone whomever has been around Plummer. Always smiling and joking, Jimmy will be missed.

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…in his hiring of Wayne Krivsky, most recently the GM of the Cincinnati Reds. Krivsky, whom worked with Minaya in Texas, will be a major league scout.

By now Minaya must be weary of Tony Bernazard and his manipulative ways. And with Adam Rubin’s piece in the NY Daily News indicating Bernazard has ingraciated himself so much with the Wilpons that he is considered the heir apparent to his job, he has more evidence. Krivsky will be an honest broker and a new voice of reason in meetings.

When there are leaks in information getting out - both to the media and to players - an organization becomes dysfuctional. One or two people had an agenda to stir things up to get their way. Willie Randolph knew this was at work and its why he understandably became paranoid.

If it true that Bernazard uses some players in the clubhouse to spread rumors and get complaints about the manager and his coaches to broaden his power and influence, its something the Mets cannot let continue.

Clearly this situation existed last season and the clearest indication came when Rick Down was fired early last year. The whispering campaign continued and it cicumvented both Randolph’s authority and effectiveness. It must have been something to see during last season’s monumental September collapse.

NOTE: Thanks to reader Luis Venitucci for pointing out my linkls are working. I’ll try to fix it.

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Today’s NY Post article implies that Tony Bernazard worked behind the scenes to undermine Willie Randolph. These thoughts are not new. Here’s part:

.

Randolph had spotted Manuel having a lengthy conversation on the field at Shea Stadium last week with Mets VP of player development Tony Bernazard, a known Randolph detractor. Randolph grew concerned Manuel was serving as a mole to the front office and he confronted Manuel about the meeting. Manuel denied anything nefarious in his face-to-face with Randolph.

But Randolph was fired on Monday night and his suspicions about Manuel widened after watching Manuel’s introductory press conference to become interim manager, because Manuel was so explicit about the areas in which he would separate himself from Randolph.

It is Randolph’s burgeoning belief that Manuel might have been pointing to just these areas as a way to knock Randolph and campaign to be his replacement.

Speaking before last night’s game against the Angels, Manuel confirmed his on-field chat with Bernazard but strongly downplayed it.

This is rough as Randolph is accusing Manuel in a conspiracy. However, Randolph was understandably jumpy about anyone speaking with Bernazard.

The role of Bernazard within the Mets power base is being brought into question by the NY Post. Bart Hubbach and Joel Sherman had their names on the article and it was indicated at the end that Mike Vaccaro had contributed. The Post’s Kevin Keernen mentioned Bernazard’s meddling in less than positive light. This constitutes that majority of the Post’s writers who cover the club.

When the Post attempted to ask Bernazard about this, his response was curious in its over reaction.

Bernazard was much less open about the incident than Manuel when approached by The Post on the field before last night’s game.

“I don’t have to answer for these rumors and assaults on my character,” Bernazard said, refusing to let a reporter even finish the question.

Bernazard then asked a team public relations official to escort the reporter away from him as he returned to the clubhouse.

Tony Bernazard protests too much methinks.

This will be an interesting angle in reporting. Bernazard’s nastiness with the reporter and dismissal won’t deter the Post from advancing it. It will probably only encourage them.

UPDATE: This from Ken Davidoff of Newsday

UPDATE: Another terrific take by Mark Healy. A must read

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The Mets are getting no quarter from the media. Matt Cerrone says he feels dirty. Ouch. Mike Vaccaro says it was an act of cowardice. Bill Madden says it was disgraceful.

Questions are being asked now. Not about why the Mets orchestrated Randolph’s ouster this way, but how it got so bad. Buster Olney addresses this directly.

First this about the manner organizational meetings are run:

The personnel meetings the Mets hold are said by participants to run on for hours, the discussion often turning circular and pointless. And maybe that’s when it starts to happen in their organization when they get to the point where the staff members are so beaten down emotionally and intellectually that they don’t have the ability to stand up and scream: Are you people crazy? Are you serious? Because this is a really bad idea — no, no, wait, let’s go one step further: It’s really just flat-out nuts

Sounds like the old Yankee way which micro managed and nit picked everything from Tampa. Someone has to be in charge of the meeting. Let your baseball people argue it out in front of you. Encourage opinions and then thank them all at the end.

Then this about the way the powers that be undermined Randolph:

When the Mets sputtered in April, the backstabbing began, with Randolph being undermined along the way. Words of Randolph’s honest player evaluations in those staff meetings somehow made their way to the ears of players. That left the manager in a brutal position of trying to draw performance out of veterans who heard that behind closed doors the manager wasn’t so sure if they had the right stuff anymore. Some on-field staff members doubted whether they could trust the front office.

And when the losing continued, the front-office leaks to the newspapers became rivers of rip-jobs, the leakers inoculated by the fact that they fired first. It’s better to blame the manager and his coaches, after all, than to take responsibility. But even after Randolph’s demise became a fait accompli, which was sometime in the last days of May, the decision-makers stopped focusing on the change itself and started becoming concerned about properly scripting his firing.

Inexcecusable if even remotely accurate.

I’ve maintained that the decline of Randolph’s effectiveness as a manager began with Rick Down’s firing by Minaya last season. Firing of a manager’s coaches during the season by the front office serves only to emasculate the manager. Unnamed sources from the front office giving fodder to writers to press an agenda is strike two against whats starting to emerge as a dysfunctional situation among the powers that be.

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Its done. And done in a manner creepily similar to Davey Johnson’s 1990 dismissal. But done with a touch of technology and a dash of Bob Irsay. It was an email in the middle of the night. While we were sleeping.

Like the Irsay’s midnight dash to get the Colts out of Baltimore, the Mets will get Willie Randolph out of town so he doesn’t get to be a sympathetic figure in a Shea Stadium press conference. Great the beat guys were asleep in the beds in LA. Jet lag you know. Wouldn’t have gotten the Email anyhow.

So the Mets get to dodge one day anyway on the back pages and get to spin it themselves with Minaya’s press conference this afternoon. Or so they think and have thought before. Today’s 24 hour and instant news cycle no longer supports their archaic paranoia.

Its the Met way.

Somehow a culture of selfishness has always won out in Queens over that of the organization’s reputation. Egos and insecurity have outweighed class. Another dark chapter is being written as no one had the foresight necessary to see just how bad their actions were making the Mets look again on the pages of history.

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Cliff’s Notes don’t exist on how to fire a major league manager. Its neither easy nor cold and calculating as the New York press corps would have you believe. Unless that is Willie Randolph is fired this week while the team is on the west coast.

Davey Johnson’s ouster in 1990 was orchestrated to occur while on the road. Al Harazin flew with the team to Cincinnati. The first game there was rained out. Frank Cashen stealthly flew in seperately.

We’d lost on Sunday at Shea to the Padres. A bench-clearing brawl occured after Kevin Elster charged the mound after being hit intentionally. Elster hurt his throwing shoulder when underneath the pile and it plagued his career for some time afterward.

On Tuesday morning, Harazin phoned Davey and asked him to come to his hotel room. He had thought it was to discuss trades. When Frank Cashen opened the door, Davey knew his fate. He was not allowed to say goodbye to the team whom he had an understandable tie.

A schism remains to this day between the Mets and Davey Johnson. Johnson did not attend the 25th anneversay celebration two years ago and he still has not been named to the Mets Hall of Fame. Shameless.

For this only the Wilpons can be held accountable. If any olive branch to Johnson has ever been extended the world doesnt know about it. If this is the case, the Wilpons could be commended. Otherwise, no. Fault would lie with Johnson’s bitterness.

The reason the Mets decided to fire Johnson on the road was to keep a press circus from occuring at Shea. Are the Mets still hypersensitive to media coverage? If so it explains why they allowed Randolph to get on the plane to Los Angeles.

One can only hope that the Mets are not headed down a similar path. Say what you may about Willie Randolph. As a public figure in New York for three deacades, he’s displayed the kind of class seen in few.

The Wilpons do not need another messy divorce with a manager.

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Veteran outfielder Trot Nixon has been acquired and should be in the line-up tonight.

From player comments he brings some needed intangibles in toughness. Nixon’s acquisition is sure to add a lift. With both Ryan Church and Moises Alou out, the Mets have been getting little pop from their corner outfield positions. Nixon certainly helps with this.

If the Mets do indeed get healthy, Nixon will provide both a great player to platoon with and power off the bench. The later is something the Mets roster has been badly in need of.

The Diamondbacks from whom Nixon was acquired have been trading partners before and they were just in town, so this trade was most likely consumated rather quickly. One still assumes that Minaya is trying to help Randolph and that something else could be in the air. Maybe another right-handed bat with pop that plays the outfield.

Words from Pedro Martinez who obviously knows Nixon well display how welcome his presence will be - not only in the line-up, but in the clubhouse as well.

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..never ever waste a start by Johan Santana that way.

The Mets clearly knew in the 8th that Joe Smith was letting it get away. Three infielders came up to speak to him during the inning. But it also showed they sensed the urgency of the moment. This team does care.

Billy Wagner’s three staight blown saves are something else - and something indicative of momentum. Wagner will be fine, but the Mets have to stop the train wreck. His blown saves are all about the way its going. And its not good.

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