Willie Randolph may have been a New York Yankee for most of the past 30 years, first as the steady second baseman on the championship teams of the 1970s and later as the third base coach windmilling runners home for the championship teams of the 1990s. But his new job as manager of the crosstown Mets is a homecoming, a return to his first baseball love.

 Randolph, now 50, grew up in the Tilden Houses in Brooklyn rooting for the team in Queens, not the one up in the Bronx. He mimicked his favorite Mets during American Legion games at the Parade Grounds. When the Mets won the World Series in 1969, he and his friends danced in the streets. And when he finished his career playing 90 games for them in 1992, he wore number 12 as a tribute to Ken Boswell, the scrappy Mets’ second baseman he admired as a kid. That's the same number he'll wear this year as the city's first African American manager.

            You sat beside Joe Torre as his bench coach last year and were on the Yankees’ staff for 11 years. What will you bring that you learned from him?

            I don't want anyone to think because I've worked with Joe that I'm going to just bring over a lot of the Yankee stuff. We're the New York Mets and this is a new era. I've worked with some great, great managers and coaches over the years. I think I've taken some of finer points from all these guys.

            The bottom line is I've got my own style. But what I've learned from Joe and one of things that is very important is communication. Players have to understand what you expect from them, how you're going to go about putting in your system and earning their trust. We can talk all we want about what I might want done, but the players have to buy into it and execute it.

            This is a new adventure for a lot of us, a new start for a lot of us.  I have to form my own identity.

            It sounds like you know this will be a learning experience for you, too.

            Exactly. I'm not going to sit here and spew off that I have grand ideas. I have to get out there and I have to prove myself also. I've been around winners. I've been a winner. I've been around great teachers and motivators. That's going to help me, to be able to lean back on that stuff. But I have to do it my way.

            You interviewed for more than 10 managerial jobs. Did you start to think you would never get a chance to manage?

             After a while I stopped thinking about it like it was something that I had to do. I always wanted to manage and I felt like if I was patient enough that it probably would happen. Once I didn't get those jobs, I got right back into what I was doing as a third base coach and bench coach, teaching young players how to play winning ball.  I never go to the point where I was really frustrated with the process. For whatever reason, the match wasn't right. I never thought it was a reflection on me. I know that sometimes when you're patient good things come to you. And I feel really good about this situation.

              With the Yankees you were a coach who was out early during practice, helping players work on the fundamentals. You won't be doing that this year.

              I'll be doing a little bit of that. I've got a young second baseman (Kaz Matsui) I will help out a bit. I believe in giving it up -- giving up my knowledge that I learned over the years to players. I want to be a working manager, if that makes sense. So if see something I can help with, I'm going to be out there.

              When you became manager did you have any idea that General Manager Omar Minaya would sign stars like Pedro Martinez and Carlos Beltran?

             No idea at all. I thought we were going to take some baby steps. We still will. But to be able to get that instant credibility with a pitcher of Pedro's caliber and one of the best young players in the game in Beltran is tremendous. Going in I knew Omar was going to be aggressive, but  you never really know if it's  all going to come to fruition until it does and you say, 'Wow, this is unbelievable.' Obviously Mr. Wilpon (the Mets’ owner) wants to get back to his winning ways as soon as possible.

             Does that put more pressure on you?

             I'm a winner. I've always been a winner. So, for me, this is not about expectations or pressure. I hear people say you've got pressure on you to win now. Well, that's the way it should be. I don't see it any other way. I don't have a problem with the expectation that we're looked upon to win right away. I expect to win every day. That's the mindset we have to have. Changing the whole culture, the whole mindset is probably one of biggest challenges here.

             How would you describe your managerial personality?

             I’ll find out what the final roster is going to look like and make adjustments. I don’t believe you can shove something down a team’s throat. You can’t make them do something they’re not capable of doing. You have to be flexible.

             Do you remember the first Mets game you went to?

            I took my wife-to-be to. It had to be 1971. They were playing the Cubs and I remember Billy Williams hit three homers that day. My wife knew nothing about baseball. All she knew was that Billy Williams was cute. We sat up behind home plate in the upper deck. I saved my allowance to get box seats.

            I remember I got to meet Billy years later and I told him that story. To this day, my wife and I get a chuckle out of it.

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