Met Fans React to Firing of Omar Minaya and Jerry Manuel

Seems to be contagious! What a great day!

Freddy and Paris Play The Obligatory "Failure is Unacceptable" Card

Another Mets season has come and gone and that can mean only one thing: that Met fans will get the obligatory "failure is unacceptable" email from Mets management, only to watch the same results year after year. In case you missed it, here's the text of the email which we received this morning:

Dear Mets Fans:

Thank you for your support during another extremely disappointing season. Like you, all of us at the Mets had high expectations for 2010 and we did not come close to meeting them. Since reaching the National League Championship Series in 2006, we have underperformed. The failure is unacceptable and we share your anguish.

As Ownership, we are ultimately responsible and have determined that changes are necessary to produce a winning team for the long term.

Earlier this morning, we relieved Omar Minaya of his duties as Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations & General Manager, and advised Jerry Manuel that we are declining to exercise the club's option on his contract as Manager for 2011. We appreciate all that Omar and Jerry have done for the Organization and thank them for their time and effort. Changes like these are never easy, especially when dealing with people you like and respect.

We feel a fresh perspective in the leadership of our baseball department will elevate the performance of our club. That person will work with Ownership to hire a new Manager and will be responsible for creating a winning culture.

We have a lot of work to do to regain your confidence and support. Thank you for the opportunity to do so.

By the way, we received the same type of email from 2006-2009, all the time referencing the tired "failure is unacceptable" line. Mets management must think us fans are stupid. And maybe we are for wanting to believe that maybe next year will be different. But let's face it folks, failure IS acceptable for this team, otherwise they wouldn't have allowed it to go on so long.

Said a very "connected" insider: "Regardless of what they say, the Wilpon's were hit hard by Madoff. If they really think that "failure is unacceptable", they'd graciously sell the team and let new owners run the club. It's the only way to restore any level of pride this organization once had."

Now THAT, I believe!

"The Decision: 2010" - The Good, Bad, and Ugly of It

The Happy Recap: Mets 2, Nats 1 (10 innings)

Josh Thole's (also known as T-HOLE) 10th inning walkoff homerun gave the Mets their 78th victory of the year last night, which as crazy as that sounds, means the Mets have actually overachieved as a team this year since most experts and fans didn't expect them to win more than 77 games for the entire year. Yes folks, by expectation standards, 2010 has been better than we had hoped for, and that's quite sad.

In fact, the Mets made history last night as they became the first team to ever have 3 different catchers hit "walk off" homeruns in the same season - the same season they haven't hit a grand slam yet. But don't worry: there's still 2 more games for that to happen (maybe!). Then again, who cares? Fans have stopped caring for weeks now.

The real buzz coming out of yesterday was "The Decision" made public in a sort of un-Lebron-like way, that Omar Minaya and Jerry Manuel will not be returning next year in their current roles. Mets fans across the nation responded to the news with one simple word: FINALLY! Here's the good, the bad, and the ugly of it all:

THE GOOD: The good is obvious with this move, getting rid of two of the most inept people who've ever held their respective jobs in the history of the franchise. Jerry and Omar were both in it way over their heads. "The Decision: 2010" is good news to all Mets fans. However, there's only one man I want to see Met management concentrate on and that's Bobby Valentine. Backman, Carter, Melvin, Teufel, Oberkfell, Hale, etc - I don't want to hear any of it. Love him or hate him, can Mets fans at least admit that NO ONE knows more about baseball than Bobby Valentine? Really... he got the team to a World Series with Benny Agbayani and Timo Perez! Say what you want about the guy, he's a baseball genius and MetsFanClub.com wants him back. Wilpons: make it happen! (although as Mets luck goes, it looks like Bobby V's still upset with the team - and who can blame him?)

THE BAD: We've been saying this for a long time and feel like we have to repeat ourselves one last time. We all knew "The Decision: 2010" was going to happen. We all knew Omar was a buffoon back in June. We all knew Jerry was a bad manager before the season even started. If the Mets knew they had cancer, why did it take so long to get treatment?!?! If we all knew "The Decision" was coming, why couldn't the team just fire these incompetents back in June, and then maybe - just maybe - the team might have played meaningful games in September!

That's right - just after the All-Star game when the Mets were 11 games over .500, MetsFanClub.com called for the immediate firing of Jerry Manuel, because we stated (and I quote): "The Mets are now playing with house money. With Manuel as the manager, it's just a matter of time before this team drops down to under .500". We said that during a winning streak. Mets management obviously didn't listen.

We got a ton of email, calling us "negative", "doomsayers", "unable to enjoy the moment", etc. Well, let me tell you - at MetsFanClub.com, it's not about being negative: it's about tough love and being right! When you're sick, you get immediate help. You don't wait until after the season to do things that'll make you better. The bottom line is this: "The Decision: 2010" came 3 months late and Mets fans had to suffer as a result.

THE UGLY: Listening to Jerry Manuel field questions about "The Decision" got really ugly with his insinuation that injuries were the reason the Mets have been so bad and that he's somehow been given an unfair evaluation of his performance. Yes, the Mets have been hit hard by injuries. But so have the Phillies... the Yankees... the Red Sox... the Rangers... The difference between a good and bad manager is that good managers don't use injuries as an excuse for losing, instead of saying things such as "the only way we can win is if the other team screws up", and similar statements made by this idiot.

Same thing goes for the front office. Most teams make moves to help their clubs after injuries - Minaya just sat there and played checkers while his intelligent counterparts played chess.

The real ugly part is that we found a list of all the managers the Mets have ever had, and can honestly say that Manuel is among the worst, if not at the absolute bottom. Talk about the Amazin' Mets - it's Amazin these guys actually got hired in the first place.