Manuel talking today about his job status
Jerry Manuel (above) didn't take kindly to comments made by Joe Torre concerning the possibility of taking the Mets managerial job if it became available. (Sept. 19, 2010) Credit: John Dunn
Q: What have you discussed with ownership about your job?
JM: “I have not discussed anything. Nothing has been told to me other than just like every year, you discuss it at the end of the year. So I haven’t been told anything.”
Q: What do you expect to come from those discussions when they do happen?
JM: “I don’t know. I mean, obviously I like what I’m doing and I love, obviously, the city. I love this environment, but I look forward to hopefully get the opportunity to help turn the franchise around, it’s had a couple tough years, obviously, I think we have solidified some people as far as identifying and evaluating major league players, players that we think can compete for a championship, so this is what I love to do. I’d be very disappointed if it doesn’t happen, but obviously you have to understand what this is about and so forth, but this is something that I love to do. I really enjoy it.”
Q: During your years of managing here, do you feel like the injuries never gave you a chance to see this team's potential?
JM: “Every team has those things, and definitely we were hit very hard, and I think that would be probably the only thing that I regret is that I never really had the pieces that we had put together to last for a significant time. That would be the toughest thing for me to overcome personally, I don’t worry about my strategy, how I handled the team, blah, blah, blah, those types of things, that part would probably – not haunt me – but that would be something I would think about often, what could have happened, what should have happened, that type of thing.
Q: Is Omar the scapegoat here? Where does the burden of blame lie for what happened this season?
JM: “I think as the manager of the team, I’ve never ran from blame or anything like that, I’m the manager of the team, I managed the pieces and the resources the best way that I could and it didn’t work out. We didn’t finish where we wanted to finish, so I take responsibility for that.
Q: Are you thinking this is the last weekend for you as manager of Mets?
JM: “Ah, no, for some reason, and I was explaining to people, I don’t have the same feel that I had when I was let go by Chicago, I just don’t, I don’t know why, I’m just being honest with you, I just feel like there’s something here for me to do and it hasn’t been completed. I don’t know if I will get that opportunity, but I just don’t feel that I wont.
Q: If you haven’t been told of your status, and somebody else is saying you’re fired, would you have liked to have been the first to know?
JM: “No question. I think that would obviously be the honest thing, or the integrity thing to do, no question. Yeah, no question.”
JM: “No, I think again, like I said, it sounds like everybody’s got me written off but nobody’s told me I’m written off, you know what I’m saying. They kcked me to the curb and I;m not seeing the curb, but anyway, that’s why I don’t feel, I just don’t’ feel that way at this point. I guess obviously any time it’s the first time it’s a little different, then you obviously handle it differently the second time, but for some reason, I don’t feel that way.
Q: Have you been left hanging by Mets ownership this year?
JM: “Going in, you know when you come to New York, the bottom line is that you have to win, so that tells you some things right there, but you obviously would like the people to let you know before it comes across the screen, or something like that, that’s the only thing about that, yeah.
Q: Do you have some ideas what this team has to do starting next season?
JM: “Yeah, definitely, I feel that it’s incomplete, I feel that we’ve identified some pieces, and now you have to find the other parts that go that can bring certain ingredients that were missing, you have to be able to identify that and then put that back together,whether it’s economically sound or however you want to go, there’s still ways to get that accomplished, being a lifelong baseball man, you kind of think that you know what those things are and what those things need to be, and know and have identified the people that you have been working with, the players that you have been working with, exactly what they are capable of and what positions and roles they should play, sometimes you think something different, but unitul you experience that, you don’t really know, that’s why I kind of feel like it’s close but obviously some things have to be added and some things have to be subtracted."
Q: Will you ask the Wilpons today about your status?
JM: “Well, I think I’m an employee here, and I am employed to manage games and that’s what I’m going to do, I’m going to manage the next three games just like I’ve managed the whole year, try to put the team in a position to win. That’s what I do. And then after that, if someone feels there’s a need to come and speak to me, I don’t have a problem with that, not at all.”
Q: Do you feel for Omar?
JM: “I think it’s a tough situation, New York is a demanding place, you’re in an organization and a city that you love to be a part of, any time anybody is talked about in losing their job, you definitely are concerned with it, you don’t feel good about it.
Q: If this is the end for you, what advice do you have for the next person in your spot in dealing with the peculiarities of this organization?
JM: “What advice would I have? I’d say, man, you got my job. I should be doing what you’re doing, that’s the advice I’m goignto give him, I don’t think I would offer that because I think it would be his job to understand and do his thing, not be influenced by what I’ve done or what I have left, I think that would only be fair to him."
