Head over to the always entertaining The Onion for a funny story pertaining to a David Wright 2005 check swing call…

The onion is awesome, always funny stuff over there

Hat tip to Jules in the bleachers for the link.

Newsday’s David Lennon is reporting that Willie Randolph will be a guest of George Steinbrenner for tonight’s All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium.

“George emphasized that his friendship with Willie is a very important thing to him,” spokesman Howard Rubenstein said. “He’s always looked at Willie as a friend and he is very pleased he’ll be his guest at the Stadium.”

The AP also reported that David Wright has exchanged messages with Randolph since his dismissal.

“I think it’s good for a guy that’s been such a part of that Yankees history to be here,” Wright said. “He definitely deserves to be here.”

Quotes from Willie tonight might actually be more interesting than the game.

Pic - Willie Randolph arrives with his wife Gretchen at Yankee Stadium.

NY Post’s Bart Hubbuch provides us with some video of David Wright and Billy Wagner talking with the press at today’s All-Star Game media session.

While Bobby Abreu seemed to have trouble with power in the second half of 2005 and David Wright likewise in the second half of 2006, that’s no reason to make it a rule that the Home Run Derby ruins swings. That doesn’t even mean Abreu and Wright were affected by it.

The most home runs Abreu has ever hit in a season was 31 in 2001. In 1999, 2002, and 2003, Abreu’s home run total was 20. Yet, going into the 2005 Home Run Derby, Abreu’s home run total was 18. He then only had six home runs in the second half of that season, finishing with a “disappointing” 24. People speculated that perhaps the Derby had ruined his swing. But Abreu had never had a season where he had say, ten more home runs than the 24 he finished with in 2005. So why were these expectations even there?

Looking at Abreu’s 2005, his worst power month wasn’t even in his second half. It was April. He had one home run in April. How did he get the 18 he had at the All-Star break? He had a red-hot May where he finished with 11 home runs and 30 RBIs, a monthly total he never even came close to in any other months.

With Wright, since he was so young in 2006, perhaps people thought he was developing into a 40 HR-type. He still could, after all, he hit 30 HR in 2007 and is on pace for at least 30 more this season. However, he finished his “disappointing” 2006 with just one home run shy of his 2005 total. Wright went into the 2006 Home Run Derby with 20 homers and only had six in the second half. Not surprisingly, Wright is another guy who had a red-hot month to inflate his numbers. He had 10 homers and 29 RBIs in the month of June. These numbers far surpassed every other month Wright had. And Wright continued to get on base in the second half, only dipping below a .350 OBP in August.

By the way, Wright didn’t even win the 2006 Home Run Derby. Ryan Howard did. He went into the 2006 Home Run Derby with 28 homers and had a second half with 30 homers, cultimating in his 2006 NL MVP win. That Derby really ruined his swing.

The 2007 Home Run Derby winner Vladimir Guerrero went into the contest last year with 14 home runs and hit 13 roundtrippers in the second half, thus finally silencing the debate. The 2007 runner-up Alex Rios did go in with 17 homers and finish with 24, but again, he’s a young guy that has never had those kind of power numbers. This season, he only has four in 89 games.

So if the powerhouse known as Josh Hamilton wows the crowd at Yankee Stadium on Monday or Evan Longoria has his national coming-out party, there’s no reason to expect their imminent and immediate downfall. To suggest that players are dumb enough to go through the rest of the season with a home run uppercut is naive. These guys constantly make adjustments, and this friendly contest isn’t a cancer to them.

MLB.com is reporting that 3B David Wright will be going to the All Star Game after all, as the replacement for injured OF Alfonso Soriano. Wright finished 2nd to Brewers OF Corey Hart in the player voting that ended yesterday.

Good for David, he deserved it.

For those who missed it, David Wright will not be playing at Yankee Stadium, which personally is always a godo thing. Brewers OF Corey Hart was the winner of the vote to choose the final spot, with the Rays Evan Longaria getting the AL nod.

For those hoping for last minute reprieve from the warden, the spot opened by the injury of Soriano has too been claimed as well. Rockies Matt Holliday was chosen by Rockies manager Clint Hurdle, who according to ESPN did so because Holliday did well in player voting.

Yeah, no way at all that it was because its one of his guys. None. David needs some rest anyway. His last day off resulted in a nice little offensive surge, so imagine what more than one day off will give us.

With voting ending at 5pm today for the final spot on the All Star team, Brewers OF Corey Hart continues to lead our own David Wright in the voting. Wright has said he would like to participate, let’s get him in there.

To vote, click here.

Hart is a good player, but Wright clearly has all star stats. Vote the Wright Way!

According to a New York Post story on Thursday, friends of Willie Randolph say the former manager thinks Jerry Manuel may have contributed to bringing about his early Tuesday firing.

His friends say Randolph developed these thoughts when he observed Manuel talking to Mets’ assistant GM Tony Bernazard. Manuel denied this was his intent, both in a face-to-face discussion with Randolph afterward and to reporters yesterday afternoon.

Randolph also apparently felt Manuel was going out of his way to distance himself from Randolph in his introductory press conference on Tuesday, suggesting he may have discussed the changes he would make as manager to Bernazard.

It’s always best to take stories with “friends” as sources with a grain of salt, but this type of paranoia is in the vein of the racial remarks Randolph made weeks ago.

Personally, I think Manuel hasn’t been radically different from Randolph thus far. He’s getting too much credit for his use of the DH with David Wright on Tuesday. The Mets will only have the DH a few games this season; he can’t realistically “freshen up” players as much as he acted like he could. Randolph would have used the DH in the same manner Manuel is, especially since he’s done so with the likes of youngsters Wright and Jose Reyes in previous years.

As far as major changes to the lineup in particular, Manuel said he’d like to get people going with the 2-spot in the lineup, but thus far, he hasn’t implemented that plan. That Post article also says Manuel might switch Wright and Carlos Beltran in a few games. But until he does these bigger moves, Manuel is maintaining much of Randolph’s set plans.

Last night the players finally weighed in on the changing of the guard in the Mets clubhouse, hoping they can finally move on from discussing the fate of their manager day in and day out.

Billy Wagner

“As a team, we hadn’t lived up to expectations. The bad thing is, the manager gets the blame. That’s the way the game is.”

Wagner spoke regarding the way Willie was fired.

“I don’t know if there’s ever a good time to do something like that. I don’t think any general manager likes to fire a coach.”

Jose Reyes

“I just feel sorry for the guy because we weren’t able to play good baseball for the guy. He’s going through a tough time right now, but when I get a chance, I’m going to call him and thank him for everything he’s done for me.”

David Wright

“(Randolph) took this team to a different level while he was here, but that being said, I’m excited about what Jerry can bring to the table.”

Carlos Beltran

“Jerry knew the players as the bench coach and communicated with us. I think he’ll do a great job. He’s communicates a lot and is always positive.”