Joy in Mudville

Even though we hated him as a kid, when he played for the Yankees, we're kind of excited about this new development; Willie Randolph is being named as the manager of the Mets. Not only does he hail from NYC, Bucktown to be precise, he grew up an Amazins' fan and he'll be (not surprisingly) the first Black manager of a Major-league NY club. We can't think of anything better for city baseball, barring perhaps, the extremely unlikely event of the Giants coming back to play in the Polo Grounds. Wait, that's a housing project now. Oh well, we need to cop dope somewhere when the LES is dry. (Lupica) (NYT)