Nationals Fire Matt Williams, Should Look At Willie Randolph

WaPo.com:

Two years ago, the Washington Nationals hired Matt Williams as manager, eschewing experience for youth and energy. Believed to be on the verge of a deep playoff run, the Nationals — led by General Manager Mike Rizzo — wanted Williams, who had never managed in the major leagues, to lead them to the World Series.

But after winning the National League East title a year ago, the Nationals endured a tumultuous and disappointing 2015 season, missing the postseason and winning 13 fewer games than the year before. So on Monday morning — after much evaluation and conversations with players and team owners — Rizzo told Williams he would not return in 2016. 

“Really a tough day here at Nationals Park,” Rizzo said Monday afternoon in a conference call with reporters. “Tough day for me personally, a tough day for our entire organization, but these are the first of the decisions we have to make as we meticulously evaluate why the 2015 season didn’t go the way we hoped. It wasn’t our best year. It wasn’t Matt’s best year. It wasn’t my best year. As an organization, it wasn’t our best year.”

Even to a Mets fan like me, some of the decisions Williams made during the season, especially against us, weren't just mind-boggling but let's face it, really beneficial to the Mets. And even worse than Williams's decision-making were his explanations for them. And now with Williams gone, there's already plenty of talk on who should replace him: Cal Ripken Jr. (?!?), Bud Black, Dusty Baker, Larry Bowa, etc. But what about Willie Randolph? A guy with a NL East Division title and a 302-253 Won-Loss record on his resume who expressed earlier this year that he still has an itch to manage again. I mean, no disrespect to Ripken, but an Orioles icon managing the crosstown Nats just makes no sense. And other than Baker, the other names are just retreads with no real history of winning. The Nats should take a chance on Randolph.

The Mets Face a Vista of Empty Seats and a Discrimination Lawsuit

NYTimes.com:

Citi Field was so empty as the Mets took the field Thursday night, it looked as if every spectator could have fit comfortably in the lower bowl. Even then, people would have had room to spread out. When Curtis Granderson casually tossed a ball into the stands, it landed rows from the nearest fan.

“It’s been a ghost town,” one elevator operator said.

This scene has become more common in the six years since the Mets left Shea Stadium. As the team kept losing, average attendance slowly dropped. Mets games in September have become a punch line.

The Mets’ dwindling crowds are the backdrop to the federal lawsuit filed last week by Leigh Castergine, a ticket sales executive fired by the team last month.

Castergine accused the Mets and Jeff Wilpon, their chief operating officer and son of their owner, of discriminating against her because she was having a child out of wedlock. The Mets apparently indicated to her that she was fired for failing to meet sales goals.

“The claims are without merit,” the team said in a statement. “Our organization maintains strong policies against any and all forms of discrimination.”

Castergine’s suit, in part, attempts to show how difficult her job was by likening it to selling “deck chairs on the Titanic” or “tickets to a funeral.”

The Mets hired Castergine in December 2010 to help curb a steep decline in attendance. It was a crucial time as the trustee seeking assets for victims of Bernard L. Madoff’s Ponzi scheme sued the Wilpon family, which had invested hundreds of millions of dollars with Madoff.

In 2008, the Mets’ last year at 57,000-seat Shea and the last time they finished with a winning record, they sold more than 51,000 tickets a game, second in the major leagues behind the Yankees. During the inaugural season in 42,000-seat Citi Field, the Mets’ average attendance was about 39,000, although they lost 92 games. The next year, the average dipped to almost 32,500, and the Mets brought in Castergine.

Attendance represents the number of tickets sold, not the turnstile count, so, in reality, Citi Field has had plenty of empty seats.

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The Mets Are Super Hot Right Now

6 in a row and counting. It's too bad they digged themselves such a hole, but hey it's still April. Keep it up.