The amount of vitriol heaped on Willie Randolph for speculating that some of the vitriol directed at him by the media might be racially motivated is ridiculous. Of course some of it's racially motivated. Ever since Minaya and Randolph took over, the more racist section of sports media have routinely racialized the Mets' roster and managerial decisions. "Omar wants an all-latino team," etc. Billy Wagner and Paul Lo Duca's clubhouse outbursts to the media have not helped matters.
So maybe the fact that the mets suck right now is Randolph's fault. Maybe it's Minaya's, who traded away promising young players like Brian Bannister, Jeff Keppinger, Henry Owens, Matt Lindstrom, Heath Bell, etc for scraps the mets aren't using. But the mob of reporters sounding the Willie Randolph deathwatch can't be helping anyone play better baseball. Maybe it's Randolph's job to offset that, but none of this makes that any easier to do.
EDIT: Peter Gammons gets it right.
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