What Francisco Rodriguez did late Wednesday night was a slap in the face to Fred Wilpon and to every Mets fan, but that’s just part of the problem.
The fact that Jerry Manuel even considered using K-Rod yesterday — before the Mets suspended him — the day after the Mets closer had been arrested Wednesday night at Citi Field and charged with assaulting his girlfriend’s father, shows, in many ways, the lack of discipline within the organization.
A little while later, Jeff Wilpon came out with the statement that Rodriguez was sent to his room for two days without pay, noting that Rodriguez had been put on the restricted list and removed from the roster.
“Ownership and the organization are very disappointed in Francisco’s inappropriate behavior and we take this matter very seriously,” Wilpon said in the statement, hours before he got the chance to see the picture of K-Rod in handcuffs.
Of course, it would have been better if Wilpon made the statement in person, but at least the Mets acted. Before that announcement, when Manuel was asked in his pregame press conference, well before Johan Santana’s complete-game, 4-0 win over the Rockies, if he would have any hesitancy in using K-Rod, if he were available, his answer was “None.”
Evidently that also describes the communication that is going on within the organization, considering Jeff Wilpon’s decree, which was the right call. Despite the statements from teammates that they have “K-Rod’s back” there were quite a few extremely upset Mets after what happened in the “Family Room” on Wednesday night.
K-Rod got into it with his girlfriend’s father, Carlos Pena, 53. Pena, according to sources, told K-Rod that the reliever could not talk to his daughter the way he did. K-Rod became Krazy-Rod as the incident escalated into a dangerous and ugly scene, in front of Mets’ family and children.
Carlos Beltran said one of the reasons the Mets played so well yesterday was that they are tired of being publicly embarrassed.
Maybe they will keep that edge for a while, especially with the Phillies coming to town.
When asked if the team sent the right message by putting Rodriguez on the restricted list, Beltran answered, “No one should act like that. Every step you take forward, you have to know what you are doing.”
Accountability, that’s the secret word. That’s the word that has been missing from the Mets’ vocabulary all season. Who is accountable for this daily mess?
It starts with ownership, management, the manager and players. For a change, the Mets went out and played with a purpose yesterday as they breezed past the listless Rockies.
“It’s disappointing,” Beltran said of the K-Rod situation. “Everyone has family issues, but you don’t want something like this to happen at the ballpark nor at the place where you work.
“After he reacted, I bet he felt bad about it, but it was too late,” Beltran, a voice of reason, added. “Once you do something like that, you have to deal with the consequences. I talked to my wife after the game [Wednesday] and she sounded nervous, and I said, ‘What happened?’ She said, ‘I’ll talk to you later.’ ”
K-Rod owes his girlfriend, her father, the Mets and the fans an apology.
I’ve been saying all along the Mets have not reached their potential because they do not focus and play the way they should, that Manuel has not been able to press the right buttons for this team.
“We felt all the negatives would turn into a positive,” Beltran said.
Basically, this was one of those as “low as you can go as a team” moments.
One of the Mets’ sponsors, its name is flashed on the big screen every game, is a party provider called: Send in the Clowns.
Evidently, the Mets take that seriously. kevin.kernan@nypost.com