Man, Do I Have a Headache Today!!!

I have been suffering from a very bad sinus infection, which results in a terrible headache...however, after last night's double-header defeat, and being bombarded by fall-out from Willie's nuclear comments, I can't rightly say how much of the headache is from the infection in my sinus, and how much is from the infection on this Mets' team.

This whole situation reminds me of something I went through in my business, and perhaps THIS is why my headache continues to grow.

I had a restaurant manager working for me, who had been an excellent performer with a competitor before we recruited him to join the company I was working for in an executive position. As soon as he joined us, he whipped through his training, scoring the highest grades on his exams, resulting in a quick promotion which, looking back, probably came too fast. He took over a restaurant which had performance problems- an under-achieving crew, food cost issues, labor issues, cleanliness issues, etc. He turned things around reasonably quickly, as food cost came down, new hires dotted the landscape bringing in great enthusiasm, which pushed existing employees to bring their "game" up to higher levels, and cleanliness issues were seemingly resolved.

With these changes, sales began trending upwards and things were looking up for the restaurant, and this manager's career seemed to be sky-rocketing!

After about 8 months, and 2 very good audits, things started changing. Food cost would be up one month, and down another month; some new hires would be fired for, what seemed to be, crazy issues, yet other employees were offered for promotion; one visit resulted in an amazing customer service issue, while the next would be riddled with challenges; a Jeckly-and-Hyde-like restaurant emerged, and I had to get to the bottom of it. Yes, folks, the parallels continue.

I visited the restauarant, and interviewed employees who had been there for a long time, noticing that they didn't seem to have the fire and loyalty that they used to have, most having been in the company for quite a while at this point (as in over 2 years). To a tee, their responses were similar to one another - "the manager favors new hires," "the manager refuses to listen to our opinions, and thinks his way is the only way," and "the manager feels like everyone in the corporate office is against him, doesn't appreciate all of the changes and success he's brought to the restaurant and they should kiss his feet for what he's achieved." In a short time, this manager had gone from a hard-working success to a thin-skinned mess, and I had to find out why this was happening.

After interviewing this manager, I knew that there was nothing left to do but part ways, before things got worse. He wanted a substantial raise, because he thought his work was far and away better than that of his predecessor; he wanted to change the way the company did various procedures, because he felt that his way of doing things, which he had learned from a "bigger competitor" had been more efficient and successful; and, finally, he thought that he was being picked on because he was of a different nationality then anyone else in the restauarant, as well as amongst the management staff of this growing, young company, and therefore whatever criticisms were lobbied towards him were from "prejudiced" people. He would cast apsersions upon anyone and everyone in order to shift blame from his own shoulders to those of someone else, and that trick never works beyond the kindergarten level. Needless to say, we had to remove this "cancer" from our ranks, and although at first it looked like the restaurant had made progress, in short order, we had to replace a good portion of the team members, as they had become used to preferential treatment; food cost numbers that he had submitted weren't "true" numbers, as he had fudged his inventories; and, worst of all, guest counts had begun to decrease, as his "team" had begun to feel the effects of his mercurial management ways and they were producing uneven, at best, guest service by the end of his tenure.

After the manager left, we had a 4 month period of upheaval, after which an assistant manager stepped up and started taking charge of the restaurant- quite unexpectedly, I might add. The restaurant took another 6 months to really turn around, and, at the time I left that company, it was one of the more solid restauarnts in the chain, some 2 years after that manager had been terminated.

Now, don't get me wrong- I am not saying that Willie is a "cancer" - nor am I implying that he is solely responsible for what ails this team- far from it. However, again, thinking back to this example, I looked at my role, and compare it to what GM Omar Minaya is now facing. I had brought this manager into the company, and was told that he was my problem to "fix," which, of course, would be reflective of my success in the company as to how I decided to take charge of this situation. I didn't want to act hastily, and spent quite a bit of time, first figuring out what had happened, then plotting a course of action, and finally, creating a plan for change that wouldn't bring down the restaurant. Omar, similarly, brought Willie into the organization; his tenure will be, and has been, judged by his superiors as to how well Willie is doing and has done; and it will be his responsibility to either re-align the roster or make a managerial change, without bringing the team down. This situation, for an executive, is never an easy one, and that is why we are hired in the first place- to make the hard decisions, and, hopefully, leave the company better for it when all is said and done. Making a change simply for "the sake of change" is never the way to go; right now, though, based on the path this season is taking, on the heals of last season, which, no matter how much we want to disregard, cannot be ignored, dictates that a change, no, a major change, is in order so that the season doesn't completely run away from us.

Right now, Omar has a very difficult decision to make, but, seemingly, it's getting easier by the day to come to that decision. The best thing that could happen would be for Willie to turn the team around, restore everyone's faith in his ability to lead this team, and allow Omar to focus on upgrading the roster, both at the major league and minor league levels. This won't happen if the team continues to play the way it is now, win 2, lose 2, etc., and it certainly won't happen if Willie doesn't continue stoking the coals of this ill-advised fire.

What, you might ask, does this all have to do with my headache? Well, quite frankly, watching the Mets, watching baseball, period, is an "escape" - from life's ups and downs, from work, from stress, from everything else that is wrong in the world as we watch the game we loved as children and enjoy the daily battle to win. When the same situations that you've battled through in your work life replicate themselves in something that you love, like baseball, and rely upon to give you a diversion from things, it just fails to be fun and the enjoyment is sucked right out of it! Yes, this is a business, as we've sadly been reminded of for so many years now; and yes, people make huge livelyhoods off of this "child's game." For me, regardless of the changes in the business model of the game, it remains the part of my childhood that is good, that is eternal, that reminds me of a time when I was young and thought of nothing more than whether or not Felix Milan was choking up too much on the bat or whether or not Jon Matlack was going to be better than Jerry Koosman or better than Tom Seaver. It's hard to think of such things when confronted with what is becoming a nasty situation and, unless something is done by the team to end this, right here, right now, we're going to continue to be distracted from what is the most important part of the game, what happens on the field!

Right now, what's happening on the field is enough to give anyone a headache; THAT, however, is a headache that I am far more prepared to deal with!

I am going to take more sinus medication, so blame this post on the meds and perhaps, when I wake up again, things will be different- now where are those red shoes, Dorothy?