WFAN’s Eddie Coleman spoke to Mike and the Mad Dog this afternoon.

“You could say it was inevitable but we were all caught by surprise, the way it went down. Willie was upbeat after the game, they just played one of their better games, they beat a good team, they have Santana going tonight, there was no reason for him not to think optimistically. He knew was on thin ice, under the gun but he was as upbeat as I’ve seen him because they responded in a big way for him and with Santana going he thought maybe the roll was coming.”

“I spoke to Willie early this morning. He was taking calls from everywhere and he was busy it was just a couple of hours after it happened. He was brief but I did sense a bit of relief from him and he use the term “this has been hanging over me for a while” and in a sense he felt at peace with himself… Its been tough trying to get this team ready and focused when everything is swirling around. He was disappointed and shocked by it but at the same time he told me he was at peace with himself and the job that he did.”

“I told him he kept his head high the entire time and that he had nothing to be ashamed of. We had talked over time about how I felt the deck was stacked against him on a lot of fronts. Injury wise, just normal baseball stuff and he handled himself better than any person in his position could during this time. He did the right things and did all he could to keep his team headed in the right direction. They are coming off two wins in row and Jerry Manuel is taking over at least that’s a head start for him.”

Asked about the way Willie’s firing was handled:

“Incredibly ill timed is the nicest way I could describe it. There are a lot of other ways you could describe it as well…I can’t understand why it was done this way, you put a guy on a plane and fly him out here… It makes absolutely no sense. I just don’t understand the thinking or the rational behind this whatsoever.”

“I will tell you one thing, when we were at the ball park last night. I did not hear this but I was told this from Steve Popper of the Bergen Record, he asked Tony Bernazard, who is here on this trip whether anyone would be fired? This was late last night, 11:30 or so west coast time and he asked if anyone would be fired tonight? Tony said no. Now, when he was seen later at the team hotel Steve Popper confronted him and said “you said nobody was going to be fired tonight”? his response (Bernazard) was “well they weren’t, they were fired today.” …So how about that one.”