Only The Mets . . .

As in, only the Mets could make people angry for firing a manager who not only led the team to the worst collapse in Major League history but followed that up with trailing the Phillies in the standings by six-and-a-half games in only June. That’s basically the definition of “bumbler”:

Cowardly. Embarrassing. Disrespectful.

These are just some of the words used Tuesday by Mets fans and analysts to describe general manager Omar Minaya’s bizarre firing — at 3:14 a.m. New York time — of manager Willie Randolph and two coaches at a Los Angeles hotel.

“We could not go on as a team as it was this weekend, it was not fair to the players,” Minaya said at a hastily arranged news conference Tuesday in Los Angeles, where Minaya had fired the trio after the Mets beat the Angels.

“I had to tell him as soon as I felt the decision was made,” Minaya said of the timing.

While many agreed the Mets needed a new manager, the manner in which Minaya fired Randolph and replaced him on an interim basis with bench coach Jerry Manuel has been universally panned.

“The team handled it terribly,” said Joe Pietaro, editor in chief of New York Sports Scene Magazine. “The way they did it was to have the least amount of New York media on top of it as it happened. To bring him out to L.A., to do it after the game at the time was inappropriate.”

Besides Randolph, Minaya also fired pitching coach Rick Peterson and base coach Tom Niento. All were announced in a news release that went out in the middle of the night.

“I don’t know what they were thinking,” Joe Hamrahi, managing editor of baseballdigestdaily.com., said of the firing’s timing. “These guys are not amateurs; they have a full media-relations team that should have advised them that this would have made them look bad. I think it was a terrible mistake and Minaya is going to live to regret it.”

. . .

“I thought it was dirty,” said Jeff Mitchell, 40, of the Bronx. “They did it in the middle of the night and on the West Coast. Why let him fly out there? It makes it looks like there’s bad blood. They should’ve shown more class.”

“Terrible,” sad Robert Wilson, 46, of Murray Hill. “They could’ve handled it more professionally and more gracefully.”

Despite their historic collapse last season, the Mets were favored to win the NL pennant this year. However, the team’s $138 million payroll along with the addition of pitcher Johan Santana hasn’t helped the team rise above mediocrity. Going into last night, the Mets were 34-35, six-and-half games behind the rival Phillies.

See also: “Damn Mets!” (Observer, June 17, 2008) — the URL for which features the snappier “No Balls,” which might be a better headline.