Management doing dumb things.

I'm a New York Mets fan so I've been following the saga of Willie Randolph, the team manager. Over the last month or so, there were rumours he'd be fired over the team's poor showing, even though it's hardly his fault that the team isn't hitting or pitching well.

On Sunday, the Mets and the Texas Rangers played a doubleheader -- six or seven hours of baseball, in which the Mets lost the first game but won the second -- after which they ate, showered and took a six-hour flight to California to play their next game. General Manager Omar Minaya, who was hanging around the team all this while, went down with them. At around midnight, after winning the game in California against the L.A. Angels, Omar Minaya dropped the bomb and finally fired Willie, along with Rick Petersen (a very popular pitching coach) and another coach. At midnight! Which is 3 a.m. New York time.

In other words, the GM fired three people after making them sit through a doubleheader on Father's Day, followed by a six-hour flight to California, and an entire game of baseball with the Angels. What's up with management being so dumb?

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I guess he didn't want to shake the team; make them more depressed before having to fly out to L.A. But still. I would have gathered all the players and coaches after the two games in New York, told them gently that the three weren't going to California, and if anybody had any questions I'd answer them.