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ATLANTA -- New York Mets manager Willie Randolph issued an apology Wednesday to team ownership, the club's TV network and his players "for the unnecessary distraction" he created by suggesting he was portrayed in a different manner than white managers.
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Randolph, the Mets' first black manager, created a stir with comments he made that appeared Monday in the Record of Hackensack, N.J.
Randolph brought up race when he questioned the way he has been presented by SNY, the team's TV network.
"Is it racial?" Randolph was quoted in the story. "Huh? It smells a little bit. ... I don't know how to put my finger on it, but I think there's something there."
Before the Mets played the Braves on Wednesday, Randolph began by saying, "I just wrote down some notes I want to share with you guys."
"First of all, I want to apologize to the Mets ownership, SNY and my team for the unnecessary distraction that I created, that I caused the last couple days," he said. "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. The fact of life is that we haven't been playing very well as a team. We've been very inconsistent. We've talked about that before. When it happens, you're going to get criticized for that. I understand that."
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| Willie Randolph calls his comments a mistake. (AP) |
"It's been a tough couple months for my team, for myself," he said. "I understand that goes along with that. I've known that for a long time."
Dodgers manager Joe Torre, who spent 12 years with the Yankees, said the pressure of performing in New York could be partly to blame for the comments.
"It's a very tough market. That's all I can say," Torre said. "He's under a great amount of pressure -- as (Joe) Girardi is and as I was. Sometimes you may not be as well-rested as other days and you get a little cranky."
Asked whether there might be any truth to what Randolph said, Torre replied: "I'm not even going to go there. Willie certainly has a set of circumstances that he's had to deal with that a lot of other managers didn't have to deal with."
Reds manager Dusty Baker said Randolph may have simply been speaking his mind.