The MMOB Daily Quote - Willie Randolph

Willie Larry Randolph (born July 6, 1954)

The subject of today's MMOB Daily Quote is a former Major League Baseball player and manager who has spent most of his career in New York (with both the Yankees and the Mets). I remember watching Willie as a kid and appreciating his fiery play at second base. He had a lifetime .276 batting average and amassed 2,210 hits over 18 seasons.

While he is now a bench coach for the Milwaukee Brewers he managed the Mets for 4 seasons. He lost his job in 2008 primarily because of the infamous finish the the 2007 season. Holding a seven-game first-place lead in the NL East with only 17 games to play, the Mets finished 5–12 and lost the division to the Philadelphia Phillies, who went 13–4 in the same period. That run is now refered to as "one of the worst collapses in major league history."

Here's some video of Willie reminiscing about his baseball experience


Randolph Reminisces

And now, some quotes from Willie to get us all going on a Monday morning.

“I'm going to stop saying I've seen it all. Because every time I do, something else crazy happens.”

“Just keep the faith, and make sure you don’t jump ship on these guys, because they’re gonna go out and play hard for you until the end. Regardless if we get down to one game, whether we get down to half a game, we’re gonna bounce back and win this thing.” - from September 19, 2007 - of course we all know he was now wrong...

“We make it hard for ourselves sometimes, ... and we go to the heartbreak hotel a little too much.”

“We don't care about that. This is a new team, a new year. We just go out and play.”

“We're just going through the process of learning how to play winning baseball. The bottom line is that we're learning the hard way.”

“The baseball gods are showing me a little bit of everything this year. We just seem to make a mistake at the most inappropriate time.”

“That's why you don't panic. That's why you don't overreact. We know very well that things can change at the drop of a dime, so we'll just keep playing.”

“I'm still going to stay even. I'm going to still stay positive. This is tough. I hurt just like everybody else when you lose a tough game. It's not going to discourage me. It's not going to change my attitude. I'm going to be out there tomorrow pumping these guys up to play again. But this is as tough as it's been this year. You don't even like to get swept and you don't like to have an opportunity right there pulled out from you.”

Cheers! - Jason