MAYBE it's natural law, given that Joe Torre has won four World Series and guided the Yankees to the playoffs in each of his 10 years in The Bronx while Willie Randolph has done nothing but direct the Mets to the best record in the League of Their Own - the National, by any other name - halfway through his second year in Queens.
But to be at Shea last night to listen as the manager repeatedly explained his decision not use Darren Oliver in early relief of Alay Soler in Sunday night's over-early 16-7 loss to the Yankees was to recognize the double standard applied to evaluating the moves of our teams' respective leaders.
Actually, you didn't even have to wait until last night, not after the way ESPN game analyst Joe Morgan (does he have a clause in his contract requiring him to be referred to as "Hall of Famer Joe Morgan" at least once an inning?) savaged Randolph for allowing Soler to be punished until the Yanks had assumed a 7-4 lead with two out and one on in the third.
You'd have to be delusional to believe that, a) Morgan would ever have ridiculed Torre the way he attacked Randolph for not getting into his bullpen earlier; or, b) Torre would ever have sat still on the witness stand for the type of cross-examination about the handling of his pitching staff that Randolph endured before last night's look-away ugly 11-1 loss to the Pirates.
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