Omar Faces The Fan
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By Mark R Filippi in Naked Soma Video Published: Sunday, 22 June 08 - 12:51 PM (GMT -05:00) Last Updated: Sunday, 22 June 08 - 04:26 PM (GMT -05:00) |
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Even if you have less than no interest in the aftermath of Willie Randolph's managerial demise, the theater of Omar Minaya's media mea culpa's were a great lesson in ONTO-spin doctoring. In this clip, Omar is put on skates by the reigning kings of sports talk -Mike & The Mad Dog on WFAN. This interview took place minutes after Omar' equally unconvincing press conference in Anaheim, where the NY media had him backpedalling for over 40 minutes. As in that case, Omar just recited his talking points over and over, possibly in an attempt to convince himself he'd done the right thing. It's fun to watch ONTO Chris Russo (Mad Dog) play devil's (and fan's) advocate as EXO Mike Francesa tries to PHYLO for his friend Omar. It's this kind of multi-layer chess game that is making sports media resemble political reporting more and more. If that's not enough drama, it seems that the duo doing the interviewing aren't on the same page these days.
Mike & The Mad Dog Radio Show Could Be History
This is where Omar made an uncalculated risk. His belief in his own value to the Mets was largely built in 2005 and 2006, when the team was tunnelling out of the previous regime of 90+ loss seasons. The Mets had not made the playoffs since 2000. So posting 83 and 97 wins in those years, fielding a young, exuberant ballclub, with some veteran leaders had the fan base behind him. From the ashes of the heartbreak of a Game 7 defeat in the NLCS, Omar lost alot of his street cred in 2007 when the team was decimated by injuries and then fell apart in the, now legendary, September collapse (1). He followed that by placing Willie in a two day limbo bubble, and then held the first of many "Willie's our manager" press conferences. Even his nearly impossible once-in-a-lifetime trade for Cy Young winner Johan Santana didn't restore his standing with the fan base and the beat writers covering the team. Firing Randolph was the last act of a LOCO ONTO. His fortunes are hitched to getting the 2008 team not only to the playoffs, but to the World Series. Anything less, and the sizzle he's been selling will lose it's flavor and he'll be the one ducking the machete.
All that aside, we root for the laundry, so Let's Go Mets, MRF 06.22
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