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Fred, you must go to bat for Willie

Wallace Matthews

June 17, 2008

There is only one man in New York who can save Willie Randolph's job now. It is not Johan Santana or Carlos Beltran, David Wright or Jose Reyes, Billy Wagner or Pedro Martinez.

It is not Omar Minaya, and we all know it is not Jeff Wilpon.

It is not even Randolph himself.

The one man in New York who can save the Mets manager from the indignity and injustice of taking the fall for a room full of underachievers is the biggest achiever in the entire organization.

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That man is Fred Wilpon, who over the past 28 years as president and CEO of the Mets has cultivated a reputation as a decent man, a man of superior judgment and intelligence.

Now would be a good time for him to prove it.

After all, he created the monster who threatens to destroy the Mets. He, like many wealthy fathers, indulged his indolent son to the point that the son, who has done very little right, now believes he can do no wrong.

He has got to be the one to grab the kid by the shoulders and say, "Enough already."

The sides have already been chosen up, their loyalties clear. On one side is Jeff Wilpon, still blaming Randolph for the failure of 2006 and the collapse of 2007.

On the other is Minaya, partially out of affection and loyalty to Willie and partially out of the knowledge that once the clock stops on the manager, it begins to tick on the general manager.

And in the middle stands the man who writes the checks. When the time comes to make the call, on which side will Fred Wilpon come down?

If his track record is any indication, probably on the side of what is right. And that would be to give Randolph one more chance - a fair chance - to manage this unmanageable baseball team

This is not a plea for mercy for Randolph, who can fight his own battles, but a call for a return to sanity in the organization, so that maybe something good can still come out of this mess of a Mets season.

Firing Randolph is not going to get Reyes' head back into the game, or stop Wagner from blowing key saves, turn the clock back for Pedro or enable Santana to start three games in a week.

All it will do is punish a good man trying to do the best he can with a not-so-good team.

It is not going to turn this aging, complacent roster into fire-breathing dragons. Even if they respond to a managerial change with a few wins, the smart money says these Mets will soon return to what they have been for the past year and a half - a spectacularly mediocre baseball team.

Worst of all, it will consolidate power in Jeff Wilpon's hands, where it clearly can do no good. This team needs to be remade and Jeff, the impulsive, hardheaded, vindictive Wilpon, has already proved he is not the man to do it. Meanwhile, Fred, the smart, steady, reasonable Wilpon, is still around. Why not take advantage of that while we can?

Once a strong Willie supporter, Fred Wilpon's silence the past few weeks could mean that he is staying above the public fray, never a comfortable spot for him. Or it can mean he is pulling out on his manager, the way Brian Cashman quietly stopped arguing on behalf of Joe Torre last fall.

But Cashman was an underling and Fred Wilpon is, presumably, The Boss. And as such, he can stand back and allow his son to do more damage than he already has, or he can step in and do something risky but right.

He can do what the sons of decent men, Wellington Mara and Bob Tisch, did last season when they gave Tom Coughlin one last, fair chance to do his job without being undermined by his bosses or his players. That turned out pretty well, as I recall.

Randolph, though probably not blessed with the same caliber of talent in his clubhouse as the Giants had in theirs, at least deserves the same chance Coughlin got. If he can't get it done by October, fine. Farewell, Willie. But he can't do anything with Jeff Wilpon constantly over his shoulder, and his underlings, in the clubhouse and in the media, whispering behind his back.

For whatever his reasons, Jeff Wilpon doesn't seem to want to see that happen, but Fred Wilpon not only should, but must.

There's no better time for the Mets' CEO to demonstrate that the image of the wise, benevolent Fred is not just an urban myth. He can do that by doing what his son the COO apparently cannot do - distinguish right from wrong and sense from nonsense.

Fred Wilpon can do that by doing what a truly wise, benevolent boss does: stepping up while ordering a fractious employee to stand down. Even if that employee shares the family name.