8: Sunday, September 14 vs Braves
Welcome back to the Countdown Like It Oughta Be. Today's removal of the number 8 is brought to you by Queens Bruised Produce. When you need a soft cantaloupe, an overripe tomato or a brown banana, discover Queens Bruised Produce. It is with QBP's compliments that ushers are passing out gift bags of not-so-fresh fruit and vegetables to every row in every section.

Ladies and gentlemen, today marks the final scheduled visit to Shea Stadium by the Atlanta Braves, the other half of the longest and most fiercely held rivalry ever played out in this ballpark. The Mets and Braves came together in the shotgun marriage of realignment in 1994 and for a decade, the phrase "Braves at Mets" has indicated the National League East's version of Family Feud is about to reignite. Welcome the same people over to your house so many times a year across so many years and you begin to think you're related to them...and what's that they say about how you can't choose your relatives?

Whether it was a grand slam single, a ten-run inning or something as beautifully mundane as the return of baseball to a city that had no idea how much it wished to take seriously something as allegedly insignificant as a game, intense competition between the New York Mets and the Atlanta Braves has left its mark on this site. The Braves have been tough foes, but unforgettable ones as well. You will not be able to remember Shea Stadium without thinking of them sooner or later. It is in that spirit we acknowledge the role they have played in the history of Shea.

To remove number 8 from the right field wall — a peeling, once again, brought to you by Queens Bruised Produce...everybody get a bag? — we have on hand the following Brave icons:

Today's home plate umpire, Angel Hernandez.

Folks, may I remind you the contents of your bags of spoiled produce are to be used at your personal discretion.

The hitting coach of the Atlanta Braves, a former National League MVP and the clutch-hitting third baseman on the 1987 St. Louis Cardinals, Terry Pendleton.

Really, you don't have to open those bags right now...unless you choose to.

Three-time National League Manager of the Year honoree, skipper of the Braves throughout their divisional dynasty, Bobby Cox.

You will see that the fruits and vegetables provided by Queens Bruised Produce aren't really what you'd call edible.

The mastermind of those great Braves pitching staffs for so many years, now rocking his Saturdays away as a Fox baseball analyst, Leo Mazzone.

Though bruised produce is not suitable for framing, it may be suitable for flinging.

The 1996 National League Cy Young award winner and quite possibly the best starter-closer the senior circuit has ever seen, he made his first Major League appearance right here in 1988, beating the Mets handily and continues to battle your team successfully to this day, John Smoltz.

May we remind you that in the scheme of things, one forfeit is only one game against the backdrop of what feels like a lifetime's frustration.

One of the hardest-throwing, plainest-speaking lefty relievers to trot to the Shea Stadium mound — and a staunch advocate of diversity in public transportation ridership — welcome back the latter-day Georgia Peach, John Rocker.

Attention all Shea Stadium security personnel: you are dismissed for the day. Repeat: all Shea Stadium security personnel may abandon their posts.

And finally, leading these Atlanta Braves legends to their date with Shea destiny, two lifelong members of the Brave organization, recognized by Mets fans everywhere for their contributions to this rivalry — they'd be devastated if you forgot them now — the outstanding switch-hitter Larry Wayne Chipper Jones and the southpaw 300-game winner...

Ladies and gentlemen, today's game has been cancelled because of a water main break attributed to hell freezing over. The New York Mets thank you for attending, please be sure to forcefully empty your bags of bruised produce as you exit.

Number 9 was revealed here.

Off-day today, and I know the two of you probably have some things to discuss. Is Ramon Castro ready to come back? Who goes if Matt Wise returns? (I vote Sosa, though that's not why I'm writing to you.) How are Pedro and El Duque doing? There are probably a bunch of things to do with Citi Field, too. Busy day, in other words. So I hate to intrude.

But I think you need to get moving on one other thing today: finding a manager to replace Willie Randolph.

It's an unhappy business, using even a small public platform like this one to campaign for a man to be separated from his work. It gives me no joy; in fact, it makes me slightly sick to my stomach. But as a lifelong Met fan who's seen so many seasons come and go, I feel it's come to this: Willie has to be fired, and sooner rather than later. I say it reluctantly and unhappily, because I think he's a good man who's doing the best he can. But I say it nonetheless.

No, I'm not mollified by that 12-1 pounding inflicted on the Dodgers, by a 3-3 road trip against pretty good competition, or by the fact that for all the Mets' sputtering, they're two good days from first place. Nor am I held back by the fact that just 20% of the 2008 season is in the books.

One stat says it all, and it's this: 71-71. That's the Mets' record since last Memorial Day.

Fred and Jeff, if you think the Mets are truly a .500 team, then Willie's probably no better or worse than anybody else who could manage this team, and you ought to keep him around. But if you think this roster you're paying $137 million ought to be better than .500, then it's high time to try and figure out what's gone wrong. There are ups and downs to any season, hot streaks and cold streaks, most all of them statistical fluctuations you can make go away by shifting your start points and end points. 71-71, though, is different. That's 142 games, the better part of a full season. It's signal, not noise.

I think Willie did a pretty good job with the Mets in 2005 and 2006. He was calm and disciplined, even-keeled in good times and bad. He served ably as a lightning rod for a young David Wright, keeping the media from putting too much pressure on his shoulders. He got results from a young Jose Reyes by teaching him to be aggressive within the strike zone. He did a lot right, and in 2006 he presided over one of your franchise's finest seasons, a glorious ride finally undone by injuries within a single line drive of the World Series.

But 2007 was an unqualified disaster, one of our most bitterly disappointing years -- and the price is still being paid in the boos that rain down from the stands at the slightest provocation. I didn't think that was enough for Willie to lose his job -- it's always struck me as unfair that we're counseled to be patient with young players learning on the job, yet expect managers to arrive fully formed, able to execute game strategy and manage a roster over a marathon season and police the lives of 25 rich, sheltered young men. Willie gave every indication that he would be different in 2008, that this time if he saw complacency in his clubhouse he would step in and put things right instead of waiting for his veterans to do it. He appeared to have learned a hard lesson, and to be ready to apply that lesson. Given that, it seemed like basic fairness to let him continue.

But things are no different. The 2008 Mets look very much like the post-Memorial Day 2007 Mets -- they play far too many listless games in which they look like they're punching the clock, and all too often they turn in a true stinker marred by inexcusable mental mistakes. And Willie keeps saying the same things he said in 2007 -- that they need to get a little rhythm, that his players are veterans who know how to win, that he has faith in them. The Mets have been in the same rhythm for nearly a calendar year, and it's a bad one. Too many of their veterans have forgotten how to win, or show little evidence that they care. His faith in them, while admirable, is misplaced.

Most damaging of all is that we're hearing the same excuses we heard in 2007 -- that the Mets will be fine once El Duque or Pedro or Moises Alou returns to shore up the rotation or add punch to the lineup and brighten up the clubhouse. This has bred a dreadful passivity in the Mets, who have far too much young talent to wait around for old, fragile players to change the team's fortunes. (Not to mention that it's a poor strategy to rely on the aged and the infirm for anything.)

Does Willie deserve more time -- say, enough for a full 162-game sample since last Memorial Day? Not if you have trouble imagining -- as I do -- that the Mets can pull off the kind of hot streak they'd need to make their record respectable. If the Mets go 15-5 over their next 20, they'd be 86-76 over their last 162 games. Beyond the fact that 86-76 isn't playoff material, do either of you really believe this team will go 15-5? If you don't, then it seems to me that waiting will just give Willie's replacement a steeper hill to climb.

What does the new manager need to do? For starters, engage his players more -- and do so publicly. He should encourage David Wright to stop his endearing but self-defeating insistence on not raising his voice because he's only 25. Wright is already the best position player on this team and will be its captain within a couple of years -- his voice should be heard in the clubhouse, and not just in the game stories of the reporters to whom he's invariably kind. He should look for a new way to arrest Jose Reyes' depressing regression from electric player who has some frustrating days to frustrating player who has some electric days. He should encourage Carlos Beltran to come further out of his shell, whether it's encouraging Reyes to dance or telling Jimmy Rollins off. He should make sure Billy Wagner's isn't the only voice that sounds tired of losing.

A possibility I keep returning to is Larry Bowa, no shrinking violet but also a guy who's been a mentor to young players (Robinson Cano sure seems to miss him) and shouldn't be blamed for being tuned out by a cancerous Phillies clubhouse that Patton would have had trouble motivating. Would the Mets tire of Bowa's high-strung ways? Undoubtedly, and perhaps fairly quickly. But he's the opposite of Willie, and for a time that 180-degree change in demeanor would register with a team that needs a good shake-up. One of the unhappy truths of baseball is that nearly every manager eventually stops being effective in leading his team -- it's as if players naturally build up an immunity to his ways and his style, and need the antidote to those ways and that style. RIght now the Mets need a high-energy, aggressive type -- whether it's Bowa or Wally Backman or Bobby Valentine or some name you have in mind that fits the bill.

It's not fair that too many of the current Mets have quit playing for Willie, and yet he's the one to take the fall. But that's an old unfairness in baseball. I wish it were otherwise, but Willie's time has passed. You need to ask him to step aside, before the 2008 Mets' time is gone as well.

Respectfully submitted,

Jason

Friday Update: Dan Graziano of the Star-Ledger is thinking along similar lines, though he and I differ on what kind of manager is needed. Added bonuses: He has some excellent psychological insights into Willie and why he's the way he is, and of course an actual from-the-clubhouse view.