Welcome to the newest feature on RandBall, which is part Onion “Ask a …” and part Coors Light commercial. Our first subject is Willie Randolph. See, we bought tickets for a game at Shea Stadium like three years ago, and ever since then we’ve been on the Mets’ e-mail list. A couple days back, we got the latest installment, which featured a long message to fans from Randolph, the manager. So we’re going to compile a set of unrelated questions, followed by things he said. It’s all in good fun. Nothing serious here. Not a real Q&A. Can’t make a bigger disclaimer than that. OK, here we go.

RB: Gas prices and profits by oil companies have been all over the news lately. What is your take on the whole situation?

WR: Our team is ready to go. That’s the message I want to send to you Mets fans as we prepare for today’s opener in South Florida. The goal this year is to make our final season at Shea something special and I think we can. We’ve had a great spring. Our batting order certainly can produce runs.

RB: I read recently that college classes are using Harry Potter as a teaching tool, which seems crazy to me. What would you tell someone who wanted to take such a class?

WR: Jose Reyes has been spectacular in the field and on the bases. Carlos Beltran has recovered from his off-season knee surgeries and has been diving for balls in the outfield, while Luis Castillo is back to normal after his knee operation. I look for David Wright to once again play at his All-Star pace and we expect Carlos Delgado to have a bounce-back year. Brian Schneider adds a good defensive presence for us behind the plate, while I look for Ryan Church to play a solid rightfield. Our line-up is intact except for Moses Alou, who should be back in late April or early May. Guys like Endy Chavez, Damion Easley and Angel Pagan can fill in for Moises until he returns. You need to have a solid bench to win and we certainly do.

RB: The Office returns with all new shows in just eight days. Any thoughts on what episodes might have been pitched since the end of the writers’ strike?

WR: Our pitching has been great all spring. The addition of Johan Santana makes our staff better from top to bottom. Pedro Martinez is healthy and hasn’t missed a beat, while John Maine and Oliver Perez, who each won 15 games for us a year ago, are perhaps two of the young star pitchers in the major leagues. The bullpen will once again be anchored by Billy Wagner, one of the best closers in the game. Aaron Heilman, Pedro Feliciano, Scott Schoeneweis, Matt Wise and Jorge Sosa all can perform in a variety of roles for us.

RB: If you could tell the children of America something that would give them hope, what would it be?
WR: In closing I want to say one more thing. We all hated the way last year ended for us. For 98 percent of the season we were the best team in our division, but we let it slip away. When I spoke to the team this spring I didn’t look backwards that much, I tried to look forward so we can all learn from what happened. The lesson is simple: don’t take anything for granted and don’t expect things to happen just because you think they will. The season is here. It’s time to make it happen.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 at 12:21 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.