Maybe Jerry Manuel wasn’t joking yesterday when he said "You know next time you do that i’m gonna get my blade out and cut you. Right out there on the field. I’m a gangsta now, you wanna get gangsta on me, I’m gonna have to get you now, you do that again, I’m gonna get you, right out there on the field."
That’s how Manuel characterized what he told Jose Reyes after confronting him in the clubhouse in between innings after Reyes stormed off the field, tossed his helmet, and un-tucked his shirt.
According to a lead story by Bart Hubbuch of the New York Post, Manuel may be pretty handy with a knife afterall. Hubbuch writes,
Friends of Randolph’s told The Post that the now former manager had grown to believe Manuel actually might have been doing the opposite of helping him by undermining him to upper management. It is a charge Manuel denied late yesterday afternoon.
Randolph had spotted Manuel having a lengthy conversation on the field at Shea Stadium last week with Mets VP of player development Tony Bernazard, a known Randolph detractor. Randolph grew concerned Manuel was serving as a mole to the front office and he confronted Manuel about the meeting. Manuel denied anything nefarious in his face-to-face with Randolph.
But Randolph was fired on Monday night and his suspicions about Manuel widened after watching Manuel’s introductory press conference to become interim manager, because Manuel was so explicit about the areas in which he would separate himself from Randolph. Manuel also confirmed that an angry Randolph challenged him about the meeting with Bernazard.
Here is my take on this situation… Whenever anyone gets fired as a manager and is replaced by someone on his coaching staff, the outgoing manager will almost always feel as though he was undermined or stabbed in the back. It’s only natural for someone to suspect that. That being said, the suspicions and feelings are most often baseless and purely just a normal human reaction.
