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By Sean Connolly

Could the Mets handle this situation any worse? Throughout the last month or two, there has been heightened speculation about Willie Randolph’s coaching future. They have left Willie out to dry with dumb meetings and threats leaked to the media to make the job of coaching the Mets worse than it already is. So it only makes since that at 3:30 in the morning yesterday, they end this tabocle the worst way possible.

A report stated this weekend that if Willie doesn’t turn things around he is out as manager. The Mets were in the midst of a road trip in Texas playing against the Rangers when these rumors began. I never understand these threats in sports. Upper management threatens a coach to get the team together in a matter of days. If the thought of firing Willie was in the mind of Omar Minaya, what is winning a couple games against the Rangers, who don’t even play in your league, going to change things. And why would you do it in the middle of a road trip? Why not before or after a road trip? And why at 3:30 IN THE MORNING!?!?

I’ve heard a lot(maybe too much) about why Willie was fired at 3:30 in the morning. Maybe they were up talking about the job or maybe Omar had a bad dream about Willie and decided then, I don’t know. But, I do know this, do it when people are awake, do it when everyone else does it, sometime during the next day. The worst thing I heard was that maybe Omar gave Willie the choice of firing his coaches or its him. Why would Omar want Willie Randolph to fire his bench coaches and if he didn’t hire one? That would be the worst comeback ever to Randolph refusing to fire his coaches. I could hear it now, ‘you’re not gonna fire your coaches…well, I’ll uh, make one of them the manager, uh yeah, how do you like that Willie?’ Ridiculous.

Now, Jerry Manuel is the new coach of the New York Mets. This is the same Jerry Manuel who was not experienced enough a month ago when Willie firing rumors began. It was said that if there was a coach on the team that could do any better than Willie that coach would be upped to manager. But, at the time it was said there was no one there. Did Manuel prove himself over the past month or something? This was handled as poorly as possible and the Mets should be ashamed.

Willie Randolph should have been fired. But, fire him after his team makes the biggest collapse in regular season history. Fire him when you first bring it up. Don’t distract the team for an entire month, making them wonder who will be their manager each day. Show some respect and let Met fans wake up before they hear their season is over with Jerry Manuel at manager. Because it’s going to be a long season for them, and they’re going to need their sleep.

If A-Rod comes up one home run shy this season of a record or milestone, blame the MLB for not having instant replay by now. In yesterday’s game against the Baltimore Orioles, Alex Rodriguez drilled a pitch from Lance Cormier below the bleachers and off a set of stairs behind the wall. The ball bounced back onto the the field and Oriole’s right fielder, Nick Markakis quickly threw the ball back in. The umpires ruled it as a double and not a the home run it really was. The MLB has begun to bring instant replay into baseball starting in the Arizona Fall League, but is it right or wrong?

With this being the second hit not correctly called a home run in the past week at Yankee Stadium, the instant replay topic in baseball heats up. On Sunday, Carlos Delgado’s home run was called foul by the umpires on the field, but after second look through instant replay it was clear that it hit the foul poll and was a home run. After seeing the replay of Carlos Delgado’s disputed foul ball, home plate umpire, Bob Davidson admitted that it really was a home run.

I ****ed it up. I’m the one who thought it was a **** foul ball. I saw it on the replay. I’m the one who ****ed it up so you can put that in your paper, bolts and nuts, I ****ed up. You’ve just got to move on. No one feels worse about it than I do.

Bob Davidson

With umpires admitting they were wrong after seeing instant replay, MLB officials have gotten the ball rolling on instant replay. They said they will begin using instant replay in the Arizona Fall League. If successful and deemed useful, instant replay will then be used in the World Baseball Classic. If all goes well we could be seeing instant replay used on homerun calls and foul balls as soon as the 2009 season.

This move by the MLB to start using instant replay brings a lot of debate between whether it will be good or bad for the game. The positives of instant replay in the MLB are numerous. There have been so many mistakes by umpires in MLB history that easily could have been corrected if instant replay was there. Look at the 1996 divisional series between the Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees. A young boy, Jeffrey Maier, reached over and brought Derek Jeter’s flair over the wall for a home run. One simple look at a video tape would show that the call should be fan interference, not a home run.

People who say that instant replay would ruin the game, and slow it down are simply wrong. Football, Hockey, and Basketball all have forms of instant replay and neither sport has been ruined due to instant replay. If anything it has made each sport better and more accurate. Why wouldn’t you want instant replay in baseball? I don’t understand why one wouldn’t. It makes no sense. Some people say instant replay would slow down baseball. Listen, it’s slow enough, another five minutes isn’t going to hurt. Plus, if you’re going to sit and watch a game for three hours, wouldn’t you be fine with watching a correctly called game for three hours and five minutes. I know I would.

Listen, we have the technology now to make sure that every call is correct on the field. Why not use it? Every other sport is using it and it has proven to make each sport better. For a majority of these calls you can see the right call after one look at an instant replay. Please Major League Baseball, bring instant replay to the game I love.