Art Howe Fired By Mets

[popacrobat]

Horrible Move... not his fault that Duquette and Wilpon are dumbasses.


NEW YORK -- Mets general manager Jim Duquette announced on Wednesday that Art Howe would not return to manage the club in 2005 but that he would stay on through the remainder of the 2004 season.
A search will begin immediately for a new manager, Duquette said, but he did not wish to go into details as to who the possible candidates were.

Duquette and Howe addressed the media in separate press conferences Wednesday afternoon at Shea Stadium with Duquette saying that "it just wasn't working" with Howe as manager. Duquette said that he wasn't prepared to make any final decisions on Howe until the season was over. But once a published report on Monday said that the club was about to let Howe go, he felt he had no choice but to inform him of his decision.

Howe's angry response to Monday's report, in which he said if the Mets were going to dismiss him they should do it immediately, prompted a Tuesday meeting with ownership during which Duquette asked Howe to stay on through the remainder of the season. After taking a night to think about it, Howe agreed.

"My preference would have been to wait until the end of the season (to announce a change) but an unfortunate set of circumstances led up to it," Duquette said. "I know how he felt after that article. You can't have anything but empathy for him. But I didn't make any final decisions until I heard from him. The article expedited my decision.

"I asked him to stay because it was best for the continuity and consistency of the organization. I didn't think naming an interim manager would make sense."

Duquette pointed to the unusual amount of injuries Howe had to deal with and the lack of depth at an organizational level that handicapped Howe.


"Jim asked me to come back and finish out the season and out of respect for him I will," Howe said. "It's a tough situation, but I'm not a quitter. I'm not going to leave this team in a lurch. I want to finish with a lot of class and with my head held high. I wish them the best of luck."

The Mets had a 63-82 record heading into Wednesday's game against Atlanta. In 2003, Howe's first season with the Mets, the club went 66-95. Before coming to the Mets, Howe managed the Oakland Athletics from 1996-2002, going 600-533.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

not a horrible move... great move... tremendous move... art howe is a horrific manager. he has the energy of a sloth. the players walk all over him.

that being said, he's not the reason why the mets stink. the reason the mets stink is because fred friggin wilpon lets his son jeff run the damn team... just like the knicks and rangers suck because charles dolan lets his son jim run those teams.

wilpon needs to go, duqette needs to go, but howe needed to go as well

 

[popacrobat]

a manager is only as good as his players.

maybe he couldnt light a fire under their asses... maybe so... but the talent he was given and the timetable he was given was a bit absurd. they have no direction in which they are progressing.

they had one of the top, if not the, top lefty prospect in the game in kazmir. peterson had been raving about him with the new biomechanic system and everything, and then they say they fear his mechanics will lead him to injury, yet deal him for someone they KNOW is injured???

they are a team that has good young players, reyes, wright namely, and they could have had kazmir too. they had wigginton, he was ok, but they turend him into benson who is a fa to be.

they sign injury proned players that should be DH's (floyd.)

they sign a japanese ss that was NOT a good defender in japan, and move him to SS and move their future franchise player to 2B? great move.

i dont see how howe can be fired after two years with a team with no directional sense whatsoever.

 

[youtwohearts]

I am a Met fan but this season is pathetic and last season wasn't much better. Maybe the Met organization needs to come up with the real problem and stop blaming the managers. Isn't this the same reason they fired Valentine?

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

you don't have to read me the failures of the mets franchise since... i have them memorized. afterall, we are talking about the only franchise in major league history to take someone first overall in the draft, and have that person never make it to the major leagues (oh by the way... #2 in the draft that year was a young man by the name of reginald jackson).

they drafted a young fireballing pitcher in the early 80s, but couldn't sign him, so he went to college instead, and was later drafted by the boston red sox. his name is roger clemens.

they traded a young nolan ryan for jim fergosi. lenny dykstra for juan sammuel. they even traded seaver... twice. they had a potential dynasty in the mid 80s, won one title, and traded everyone away because they didn't think the team had enough "good guys" (which, btw, was one of their complaints about kazmir). they turned down alex rodriguez before they even started negotiations, and they didn't want to sign vlad guerrero because they thought he had a bad back, but they trade their #1 pitching prospect for a guy with control problems and an injured pitching arm.

bobby bonilla, frank viola, brett saberhagen, greg jeffries, vince "i throw firecrackers at fans" coleman, roberto alomar, mo vaughn... the list goes on and on and on.

the mets are one of the worst run organizations in all of sports... right up there with the knicks, rangers, clippers, brewers and chargers.

that all said... howe is not the right guy for this team. why do you think oakland didn't ask for any compensation and just let him out of his contract? ya' give howe a good team, the team will have a good record. ya' give howe a bad team, they'll have a bad record. he has zero effect on whatever team he manages. he has no control over his players, and they walk all over him.

i've watched these same players quit three straight septembers for two different managers. they need someone who's gonna go in there and isn't afraid to get in the face of some of these veterans... be it lou pinella, wally backman, lenny dykstra, larry bowa... whoever. once... just once... i'd like to see SOMEBODY show a little emotion late in the season. if it isn't the players, then at least lets see a little juice from the manager.

this entire franchise needs to be revamped from the groundup... keep wright, keep reyes, keep the kid diaz who just got called up, keep benson, keep matsui, and keep trachsel just because he's relatively cheap, salary wise. dump everyone else... send piazza and floyd to the minors, trade leiter and glavine to contenders, send cameron anywhere. tell jason phillips to take up golf 'cause he sucks.

and most importantly... tell Jeff Wilpon that he has no clue what he's doing, get a quality GM in here who will have full control, and let's go from there.

 

[popacrobat]

i can agree with that.


still, given the team, how is howe expected to produce?

 

[U2democrat]

StlElevation, they're all just jealous that the Cards have Larussa.

 

[popacrobat]

probably.

he ran through a LOT of grief last year when they missed out on the playoffs, a lot of fans wanted him out.

not me, i've always thought he's done a great job even though he hasn't gotten them to the world series. i think since 2000, they are the only team to get to the NLCS twice?

2000: mets/cards
2001: dbacks/braves
2002: giants/cards
2003: marlins/cubs

now, he just has to take that final step or two, and this is the team to do it with.

 

[Diane L]

From what I've read and heard, part of the problem with the Mets seems to be two clubhouse lawyers by the names of Franco & Leiter. It sounds like those two have too much to say about what goes on with that team.