Misery Loves Company: Two Guys Watch Baseball

Loco-Demotion

Now Omar Minaya is the General Manager of the Mets, and Jim Duquette . . . isn't. He's not fired, he's not resigning, he's taking a demotion. This just feels a little bit wrong, people. We can all agree that a lousy record and some . . . "questionable" moves (that was more generous than calling the Mets a "team") usually warrant the removal of the GM; however, what's become painfully obvious is that The Duke had as much to do with the make-up of this roster as Mr. Met did, maybe less. I don't think that Team "Impose Their" Wilpon is trying to make Duquette the scapegoat with this maneuver, but every action sends a message, and this one is that Jim Duquette didn't get the job done. Maybe he didn't, but like they said in ancient times, don't blame the shepherd for lost sheep when you were the one who tied him to the tree and beat the crap out of him. Or something like that.

Omar Minaya is giddy right now, eager with the anticipation of guiding his hometown team. He's flashing smiles and wide eyes all over New York. In the old fraternity days, we knew this time as the False Sense of Security Party. A year from now, his spirit will be shattered, his hope will have been squashed under a steel-toed boot, and his ass will really, really hurt, but right now, the future is bright. And his fall will be made exponentially more painful with every assurance from ownership that he'll have autonomy. What he doesn't know is that Jeff Wilpon thinks giving his GM's "autonomy" means letting them drive themselves to work.

Good luck, Omar, and godspeed. Duke, you'll want to visit Monster.com. There has got to be a better workplace for you than this.