Path to redemption still open to Wille

It isn't as if Willie Randolph doesn't have role models to follow here, ones that can lead him along the path to redemption, or the road to ruin. That suddenly is well worth pondering with the unscheduled arrival of Omar Minaya in Denver for the weekend and the Mets' 6-5, 13-inning loss to the Rockies in the opener of a three-game series last night.

Which one Randolph chooses to take says everything about how seriously he buys into the notion that those who don't learn the lessons of history are doomed to be buried under the rheumy anger of talk radio and the deep-pocketed impatience of ownership. There was a time, not so long ago, when a manager or a coach who had reached this level of tenuousness was a goner, a fired man walking. Call this the Path of Zeke, although just about every man who ever reached this point before Isiah Thomas patented it - unanimous loathing among fans, increasing disinterest among players, losses piling up like cord wood - followed the same way, be he Jeff Torborg or Stump Merrill, Rich Kotite or Ray Handley. Continue