Willie should find inspiration with Joe Torre

By Max J. Dickstein, amNewYork Sports Editor | mdickstein@am-ny.com

May 23, 2008

Willie Randolph has twice survived dismissal by the Mets -- once last fall, days after the team's September collapse, and again on Monday after a meeting with Mets brass.

More flatness and underachievement by his Mets will eventuate a third reckoning for Randolph, one he surely won't survive.

So, somewhat improbably, the 53-year-old's four-year tenure as Mets manager continued Thursday with the opener of a four-game series against the visiting Los Angeles Dodgers.

In the opposing dugout was Joe Torre, Randolph's longtime mentor with the Yankees and one of those rare New York baseball managers who has left the city on his own terms.

"I certainly feel for Willie," Torre said of his former third base and bench coach. Added Torre: "Anybody who has managed in New York has been exposed to what he is being exposed to now."

Exposed, yes. But few skippers have punctured the anxious pressure of managing here as effectively as Torre did last October, when he shrugged off the Yankees' one-year contract offer as "an insult." In another shocking display of free will, Torre joined the Dodgers two weeks later.

Randolph may find inspiration in the trail Torre blazed. Or maybe just some cause for envy.

Max J. Dickstein is amNewYork's sports editor.

E-mail him at mdickstein@am-ny.com.