Tony B...Champion of the People

As the Mets Turn: Chapter 12Who gives a crap and move on. "There's nothing to that, honestly," Manuel told The Post. "I've always gotten along real well with guys like [Mets assistant GM] John Ricco, guys like Tony Bernazard, Omar [Minaya]. The conversations are always about baseball: What are we doing, where are we going, are we trying different things. I never had any of these meetings secretly. Everyone could always see us talking." The paranoia has a firm grip on Willie and sensationalism is running rampant in the media. It was clear this was a mistake from the start and the Wilpons had a wiff of that. Fred Wilpon was enamored of the idea of the Mets becoming racial groundbreakers by being the first New York team to hire a black manager - Randolph, like Wilpon, is also a Brooklyn native - and was mollified by Minaya's contention that he'd picked a manager who would be an asset in working with minority communities in the offseason.Ooooooh that ...