Mets manager Willie Randolph issued a formal apology Wednesday to ownership. (John Bazemore/Associated Press)New York Mets manager Willie Randolph apologized Wednesday to the team's owners, players and TV network for suggesting he is portrayed differently than white skippers.
"I just wrote down some notes I want to share with you guys," he told reporters. "First of all, I want to apologize ... for the unnecessary distraction that I created, that I caused the last couple days.
"I shouldn't have said what I said. It was a mistake, as simple as that.
"It was a mistake and there is no excuse for that, no excuses. I own up to it."
Randolph, the first black manager in franchise history, hinted in Monday's edition of The Record of Hackensack, N.J., that the coverage he receives from SNY, the Mets' television network, might be racially motivated.
"Is it racial? Huh, it smells a little bit," Randolph told The Record. "I don't know how to put my finger on it. But I think there is something there."
Randolph admitted Wednesday that he regretted the remark.
"What I said was what it felt like to me," he said. "I feel bad about how this has come about."
"I'm sorry Willie feels the way he does," countered Ian O'Connor, a columnist for The Record. "But when I interviewed him in the visitors clubhouse at Yankee Stadium … he never asked for any part of the conversation to be off the record, nor did I offer to put any part of the conversation off the record.
"I asked him pointed questions, and tape recorded the interview. If he had made the request for any portion of the interview to be off the record, of course, I would have honoured it."
Randolph claimed he was frustrated over New York's four losses in six games and mediocre 22-21 record.
"The fact of life is that we have not been playing very well as a team," he said. "We have been very inconsistent.
"We have talked about that before. When it happens, you're going to get criticized for that [and] I understand that."
Asked whether he had changed his opinion of SNY's coverage, Randolph said: "Yes. Yes. Again, those guys have a job to do. They get paid a lot of money to do their job.
"What I feel about that is really not important. At the time I voiced that opinion, again, that was out of frustration. What I said was what it felt like to me. I feel bad about how this has come about.
"I take full responsibility for what I said out of frustration and hope that we can put a close to this matter and focus on winning a lot of baseball games," he continued. "That is what we're here to do — win a championship."
Missed playoffs last season
Randolph is making $2 million US this season, the second in a three-year, $5.65-million US contract signed Jan. 27, 2007.
Speculation last fall was that he might be fired because of a colossal September collapse that saw the Mets squander a seven-game lead in the National League East Division with 17 games remaining.
The Mets were 83-62 on Sept. 12, but they stumbled to a 5-12 mark down the stretch, conceding the division title to the Philadelphia Phillies by one game and missing the playoffs entirely.
Randolph, a former second baseman, spent 11 seasons as a coach for the New York Yankees until he was hired to manage the Mets, who signed him to a three-year deal worth 1.875 million US on Nov. 4, 2004.
The Mets finished 97-65 under Randolph in 2006, tying them with the Yankees for the best record in the majors and halting the Atlanta Braves' remarkable run of 14 consecutive division titles.
After clinching the NL East, the Mets swept the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL Division Series, but they lost the NL Championship Series in seven games to the eventual World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals.
Randolph, a six-time all-star and six-time World Series champion, was a lifetime .276 hitter with 54 home runs, 687 runs batted in, 1,239 runs scored and 271 stolen bases in 2,202 games over 18 MLB seasons for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Yankees, Dodgers, Oakland Athletics, Milwaukee Brewers and Mets.
With files from the Associated Press
