I have a trivia question for you. Besides throwing money at big name free agents, name one thing that Omar Minaya does well? Can’t think of anything? You are not alone.

 It seems to me that whatever the task at hand is, Minaya finds a way to mess it up and make the Met organization look like buffoons.

 Today’s Tony Bernazard firing news conference was no different. The Mets had a chance to rid themselves of one of their most unpopular figures and give off the perception of moving in the right direction. Instead, they took two steps back.

  It is no secret that Bernazard wasn’t well-liked. The feeling in many circles was that Bernazard had way too much influence in organizational matters. His firing was widely called for and probably deserved. On top of being absolutely crazy, Bernazard didn’t exactly do a tip-top job with the farm system either.

 The “absolutely-crazy” part came to a head last week when Bernazard reportedly removed his shirt while challenging the Mets double A team to a fight. This, coupled with apparent “H-R department complaints”, led to his firing.

 Omar Minaya had a major chance today to vastly improve public perception of his team today and, in typical Omar fashion, made the situation ten times worse.

 The shoe fell when Minaya accused New York Daily News beat writer, Adam Rubin, of exposing Bernazards fight club ways because Rubin wanted a job in the organization. Rightfully so, Rubin proceeded to flip out on Omar. It appeared as if Omar was trying to blame Rubin for causing the organizational unrest that led to Bernazards dismissal.

 A few initial thoughts come from this:

 1. It is obvious to me that the firing was not a Minaya decision. Bernazard is a close friend of Minaya’s and he seemed visibly upset and angry that it had come to this. What does it say about Minaya if he is reluctant to fire a guy who has embarrassed your organization and isn’t very good at what he does? Should the Mets continue to be loyal to someone who so obviously gives his friends seemingly unlimited leeway?        

 2. Is Omar so out of touch with organizational policy that he actually believes that a newspaper man with no prior experience in baseball would have a chance at this type of position? He obviously does. If not, than why bring it up?  

 This has to be the final straw in the Omar Minaya regime. Unless a miraculous run towards the post season is made, I don’t see how he survives another embarrassment.

 Sure, in the grand scheme of things this probably is not a huge deal. He was mad because he was forced to fire his buddy and lashed out a little.  By itself, this is something that could go away with an apology and a fruit basket. But the reality is that this is only an addition to a long list of embarrassments.

 Throughout the press conference today, I was taken back to the Randolph firing. Most were on board with the Willie Randolph firing. No one would have said boo if the Mets had made Randolph a sacrificial lamb before they left for Los Angeles in mid-june of 2008. Instead, Willie turned into everyone’s favorite mis-treated employee and made the Mets look like they should be turned into the better-business bureau for abuse.

 Minaya has had more lives than a cat at this point. He survived the collapse of 2007. He survived the botched firing of Willie Randolph. He survived the collapse of 2008. Until today, he looked to be treading water in the disastrous season of 2009.

 I’m shocked it hasn’t come already. For an organization that is as concerned about public perception as the Mets are, how have they continued to employ someone that routinely fails in that area? No mater what the situation, Omar’s “hijinks” invariably make the Mets look bad.

 There is only so many lives that a general manager gets. There are only so many embarrassments that can be laughed off behind closed doors. Eventually, the Wilpon chopping block has to hit Minaya.

 If not now, when?