Monday, June 9, 2008

What would Captain Willard Say?

With the 4-game sweep to the lowly Padres, Willie Randolph might be in
grave danger of losing his job again. Colonel Willard left the Wilpon's office with his orders:


At first, I thought they handed me the wrong dossier. I couldn't believe they wanted this man fired. Second baseman New York Yankees, 6 All-Star games, 2 World Series rings. About 2,000 hits. Etc, etc... I'd heard his claim of racism and it really put a hook in me. But I couldn't connect up that claim with this man. Like they said he had an impressive career. Maybe too impressive... I mean perfect. When he was a bench coach with the Yankees, he was being groomed for one of the top slots of the Organization. Manager, GM, anything... In 2001 he returned from a scouting trip in Florida and things started to slip. The report to the Yankees Brass was restricted. Seems they didn't dig what he had to tell them. During the next few months he made three requests for transfer to the River Dogs in Charleston. The River Dogs? He was 48 years old. Why the fuck would he do that ?

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