Among the things heard on talk radio today:

• Chase Utley is as good as David Wright.
• The Mets should trade one or more of Wright, Jose Reyes, or Carlos Beltran.
• Omar Minaya and the entire Mets front office needs to go.

Pure idiocy. While I often find the moronic ramblings of Mike Francesa entertaining. I can’t bring myself to endure his drivel today. This goes for the fans who call into his show who suggest the most ridiculous trades, and basically want to blow the entire team up.

Look folks, I was all for blowing the team up when they were stinking up Flushing back in June, but the core of the team is strong. I can’t really think of any realistic moves I would make that remove Reyes, Wright or Beltran from this roster.

I understand you’re upset, I get it. I know you’re frustrated, so am I. But please, lets not act like complete jackasses for the benefit of WFAN’s ratings.

According to Neil Best of Newsday, Chris “Mad Dog” Russo has left WFAN.

WFAN announced Thursday evening that they have parted ways with Russo and that they have extended Mike Francesa’s contract. Mike will continue to host the afternoon drive solo.

Best’s report says that Russo is expected to land at Sirius Satellite Radio.

It’s a sad day in New York sports talk radio history. These are the guys that started it all for duos. Despite their problems, they complimented each other very well.

Jerry Manual spoke with Chris Russo today on WFAN and will now be in Willie’s weekly spot.

Asked about the difference between himself and Willie Randolph when arguing with umpires:

“There are managers that do things differently. I can’t fault Willie for handling things different. That just happens to be the way I do things. There is no right and wrong.”

Asked about the whether the clubhouse is loose:

“Well, for me it’s all about relationships and it was a difficult thing with the cloud that was hanging over the club. It had nothing to do with how the clubhouse was being run. For me its about relationships more than rules. Rules without relationships leads to rebellion. I try to liberate them a little bit, there will be a time were things will have to get tightened up because there also needs to be a certain discipline amongst a group of men…but at this time, I just felt, let me free it up and let me see what type of player you can be and then at any given time I’ll be able to tighten that up…Yes, the clubhouse was tight. Not because of anything Willie was doing but because of his status. A lot of attention was payed to that and I would say it was difficult for some of the young players to handle.”

Asked about giving David Wright the day off:

“Well, I thought the night before he really showed signs of fatigue offensively and defensively so, I figured I’d better get it out of the way. I do not like giving players days off at home, especially everyday players but I felt it was necessary.”

Asked about the team’s bad play after playing well in Colorado:

“It was a surprise. I think what we were able to identify is that when you don’t hit as a team, you give everybody a chance to beat you regardless what record you have, you become even with them. Everyone can look good when you’re not hitting and yesterday, obviously, Perez wasn’t any good as well.”

Asked if Howard Johnson is responsible for the team not hitting:

“I think its a group effort. HoJo and myself. We have to try to find maybe a better plan how we can win games with the offensive machinery we do have. That part has been somewhat challenging for us to understand what type of team we are versus what type of team we were. We’ve lost, and everyone has lost players don’t get me wrong but without Church, Alou that’s a lot of offense that we are missing. Plus, Delgado has been somewhat of an enigma, he’s been sporadic here and there. So, when you have that combination and when you replace offensive players with strictly defensive players you have to create a different way of scoring runs and winning ball games.”

Asked if Arthur Rhodes dominance over Delgado was Rhodes or Delgado:

“That’s a very good question. I would have to tip my hat to Rhodes because that same night Delgado took another lefty and hit a line drive to left field. So, I thought we were in a good situation with Rhodes in the game because historically teams have been able score on him late in ball games.”

Asked again about the bad play versus Seattle:

“We have played very, very poorly and it’s surprising and we have to find a way to play consistent baseball. We have not played the type of baseball I want especially in front of the passionate fans we have. People are waiting and anticipating and hoping for something good and we haven’t given it to them and its very disappointing.”

Asked about Carlos Beltran and overall team aggressiveness on the bases:

“We are addressing that as we speak because we are not the type of team that can wait. With the group we have on the field on a daily basis we can ill afford not to take advantage of critical base running and base stealing.”

Asked about surprises so far:

“The media has been a surprise…with the questions about the strategy, I always thought there would be a question about a reaction here and there. Its surprising that there are strategic questions being asked…I appreciate it but it was surprising, in the other cities it was more about what was controversial, even though that is a part of it here as well but I seem to get more questions about strategy and that is good for me. I like that.”

Asked about the controversies regarding Willie Randolph and Tony Bernazard:

‘It bothered me because I didn’t think it was fair. I felt I was a tremendous subordinate for Willie and a support for whatever he needed to do. Do I have a lot of different ideas? Of course I do. Now, when news broke that Jerry is the guy quite naturally you begin to in your own way think of things and those are things that have always been with me that I’ve always discussed with Willie right here in his office. So, as soon as that came out Willie asked me and I said hey no one, no one has spoken to me or talked to me about whether I would do this or x,y and z.”

Chris “Mad Dog” Russo opens his show (with Mike Francesa on vacation) discussing the rumors that the “Mike and the Mad Dog” show is over.

The duo that many love to hate may be calling it quits after almost 20 successful years together in sports talk radio. Neil Best of Newsday is reporting that ‘industry sources’ say WFAN’s Mike Francesa and Chris Russo won’t make it to see their 19th anniversary, Sept 5. and that they may have already done their last show together.

Francesa had no comment about the story but Best has some quotes from Russo:

“That is news to me,” he said. “I have not heard that… That is fascinating information.”…”The only thing I can say is I am signed under contract for another year and a half. I don’t think WFAN is going to let me out of that… I wish I had leverage like that.”

Best writes that the reason for the breakup is ‘multi-faceted’ but the relationship between the two is ‘one element in the drama’.

Best has more on this story and some quotes from WFAN Operations manager Mark Chernoff… Aside from their usual disagreements I did notice something a bit unusual. Approximately two weeks ago they had a golf author on and Mike started to thumb through the book and ask questions. Chris said “oh, that’s the book you were reading yesterday, well I’m lost.” It gave me the impression that Mike purposely kept Chris in the dark about the guest and the book. Since I have no big interest in golf I did not stay tuned. But this incident stood out enough for me to remember and to tell a friend.

Eddie Coleman was a guest of Chris Russo’s today on WFAN.

Eddie was asked if the now infamous Tony Bernazard is with the team and speaking with the media.

“He’s here (in Colorado), we haven’t talked to him as a group but he’s here to be talked to, he hasn’t held a press conference though.”

Eddie spoke regarding media reports of Jerry Manuel backstabbing or politicking for Willie’s job.

“I don’t think Manuel was trying to get Willie’s job…Willie felt that people knew stuff that he didn’t know but I don’t think Manuel’s is that type of guy.”

Eddie detailed some of things Manuel plans to implement.

“The next obstacle is Carlos Delgado, two things Manuel has stressed is resting guys and fluidity in the line-up and I think if he’s not hitting, he wont be in the line-up.”

Eddie gave some insight regarding players and their reaction to the change.

“I think the players know it’s on them now…they are associated with the collapse and now the slow start.”

Eddie’s opinion of Manuel.

“I like Jerry I think he’s a good man, he’s a good manager, he’s a guy who can motivate this bunch and more important he thinks he can.”

Eddie also said he spoke to Tori Hunter, now with the Anaheim Angels, and Hunter said this is the time of year where Johan Santana ‘really starts to kick it in’.

Read more of Eddie C’s take on what’s up with the Mets at his blog, which has been updated today, on WFAN.com.

New Mets manager Jerry Manuel spoke to Mike Francesa and Chris Russo today on WFAN. To listen to the interview click here.

Omar Minaya spoke to Mike Francesa and Chris Russo on WFAN after his press conference.

To listen audio of the interview head over to WFAN.com

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.”