While so many of his colleagues spent the past week hysterically fermenting fake outrage and making a martyr of deposed manager Willie Randolph, beat writer Adam Rubin of the Daily News gets the real story on the complicated unraveling of the Willie Randolph Era, revealing not only Willie’s wild paranoia and churlishness, but the politicking that could make Tony Bernazard the new king of Metland before long. As always, the real story is considerably more nuanced than a 144-point headline would indicate.
As I’ve said before, I felt bad for Willie right up until the end but I have begun to think that the Mets very much did him a favor by firing him as “controversially” as they did, since it detracts from the very strong argument for having done it in the first place. Three games in and I’m thrilled with the Jerry Manuel Era.
Manuel is the 19th manager in Mets history, and the first to wear No. 53: Following is a list of all Met managers and their uni numbers:
| Manager | Years | Number |
| Casey Stengel | 1962-65 | 37 |
| Wes Westrum | 1965-67 | 9 |
| Salty Parker | 1967 | 54 |
| Gil Hodges | 1968-71 | 14 |
| Yogi Berra | 1972-75 | 8 |
| Roy McMillan | 1975 | 51 |
| Joe Frazier | 1976-77 | 55 |
| Joe Torre | 1977-81 | 9 |
| George Bamberger | 1982-83 | 31 |
| Frank Howard | 1983 | 55 |
| Davey Johnson | 1984-1990 | 5 |
| Bud Harrelson | 1990-91 | 3 |
| Mike Cubbage | 1991 | 4 |
| Jeff Torborg | 1992-93 | 10 |
| Dallas Green | 1993-96 | 46 |
| Bobby Valentine | 1996-2002 | 2 |
| Art Howe | 2003-2004 | 18 |
| Willie Randolph | 2005-2008 | 12 |
| Jerry Manuel | 2008 | 53 |
Submitted by gored82 on Thu, 06/26/2008 – 5:44pm.
1. Grammatical correction – one FERMENTS alcoholic spirits, but FOMENTS opinions and attitudes…
2. Did Andy Phillips wear no. 76 with the Reds?
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Phillips wore 46 with
Submitted by Ranjrz5 on Thu, 06/26/2008 – 6:48pm.
Phillips wore 46 with Cincinnati…
With the Yankees, he wore 12, 14, 18, and 39.
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Wow! almost as many numbers
Submitted by gored82 on Thu, 06/26/2008 – 9:08pm.
Wow! almost as many numbers as Jeff McKnight wore with the Stems…12 is newly available…
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Wouldn’t surprise me if they
Submitted by Ranjrz5 on Fri, 06/27/2008 – 8:45am.
Wouldn’t surprise me if they don’t issue #12 at least for the rest of this year…
I predict Phillips suits up in #4.
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They gave him 29. Fresh off
Submitted by Gordon Handler (not verified) on Fri, 06/27/2008 – 12:45pm.
They gave him 29. Fresh off Aguila’s back. I’m surprised they didn’t make him share #6 with Nixon.