Where is Omar Minaya?
After triggering a stunning turn of events at a press conference that was intended to announce the firing of Tony Bernazard, Minaya has been invisible from the public eye.
Omar Minaya made the firing of Bernazard a mere footnote after levying a sharp and unexpected attack on Adam Rubin’s integrity. He came off like a vindictive GM who wanted to take down the person he felt was responsible for the downfall of his longtime friend, Tony B.
It was Omar’s intent to portray Rubin as a man with an agenda, but instead he only succeeded in revealing himself as the one with an agenda. It was a low blow, and I couldn’t imagine a GM doing anything more deplorable.
Right now, I can’t figure out what was worse, the way he handled the Willie Randolph firing, or how he handled this Tony Bernazard firing. What a mess. I don’t see how he can ever recover from this. In trying to assassinate the character of Adam Rubin, he completely severed his own jugular.
WFAN’s Eddie Coleman, sheds some light on the moments leading up to Omar’s ill-fated press conference.
Here’s what happened and what triggered the outburst that stunned everyone. The press conference start time floated, as, it always seems, everything Met-related does – it was 3:00, then 3:30, then 3:45. The SNY Network – killing time – put Rubin on prior to Minaya’s appearance. Meanwhile, Minaya was watching, along with several players – some friendly with Bernazard – in the Mets clubhouse. Minaya obviously felt that Rubin was gloating over toppling Bernazard, the blood began to boil, some of the players expressed their displeasure, the anger rose and – voila – you had the perfect storm. Minaya carried it from there to the podium, and the rest is history.
All he had to do was go out there and announce that Tony Bernazard was fired. That’s it. Take a few questions, put the incident behind you, and focus on playing some meaningful baseball. But he screwed it up.
As I wrote on Monday, I believe that this episode was the beginning of the end for Omar Minaya. And despite yesterdays pre-game vote of confidence by Jeff Wilpon, don’t kid yourself, Omar is a dead duck.
Immediately after Wilpon’s dugout chat with reporters, Wallace Mathews of Newsday shared a one on one moment with Jeff who said,
“He’s this close to being out of baseball,” Jeff Wilpon told me, holding his thumb and forefinger a half-inch apart.
Omar still remains in hiding. He has yet to make a public appearance and apologize as Jeff Wilson said he would. Maybe that will happen today. I hope so, because we should be talking about the Mets four-game winning streak, but as long as this continues to fester, it remains the top story. Omar is the only one we can blame for that.
We need some closure so that we can move on. Minaya continues to keep this story alive. Even Adam Rubin is moving on, so that the Mets, whom he will continue to cover, can get back to the business of baseball.
I wrote to Adam Rubin yesterday, and he emailed me back and said,
Thankfully, the Mets have apologized, and I don’t intend to do anything to prolong or inflame things.
That’s as close to a “get out of jail free” card that Omar is going to get. Thankfully, somebody is taking the high road.
As for Omar, what are you waiting for to get out in front of this and do the same thing that your bosses and your intended victim have done? The time for pointing fingers and feeling sorry for yourself is over. It’s time for some healing.
