FLUSHING, NY – Things have sure changed around here at Shea Stadium over the past month. The Jerry Manuel era is in full swing with the transition period complete and the team winning games like it’s 2006 all over again.

Six games in a row will calm any clubhouse but this is not about the streak, it’s about how it happened. Manuel’s methods have transformed the Mets from an underachieving club to one with a sense of purpose and direction once again.

That was no easy task either. When Willie Randolph was in the manager’s office, the team seemed to become a 25 limo organization. Players weren’t tight with each other and as we saw in the last month of the Randolph regime, they started to turn on each other as well.

Billy Wagner criticized Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado. David Wright went into a shell and Jose Reyes forgot how to play baseball. All the while Randolph sat there and did nothing to provide a spark to his team. Instead, the erstwhile manager acted like a baseball Nero and fiddled while Shea burned.

It got so bad the Mets couldn’t even fire Randolph the right way. Although the midnight massacre in Anaheim didn’t sit well with the media and the fans back in New York, the result from the Jun. 17 is shaping up as the best decision the organization has made in a very long time.

Manuel seems to be the right man for the job.

First, the 54 year-old won over the media. With his southern drawl and folksy demeanor, Manuel is able to defuse any situation tossed at him. Many times the tough questions are met with a quick joke, usually at his own expense and then his great laugh takes over, which makes everyone in the old Jet locker room just smile.

What he does with the scribes and the talking heads is only part of his job. Manuel has also won over the players, which seemed impossible with this group. Already having a relationship with them as bench coach, the new manager is took it to a different level. He’s approachable, out in the clubhouse and the players respond to his hands on approach. Much like Tom Renney is with the New York Rangers, Manuel treats the players like men and not like someone paid to be their boss.

And when things go wrong, Manuel is there to take care of the problems. The manager has called for stretching and fundamental drills twice during his first three weeks. First after a bad loss against the Mariners, he has the pitchers doing Spring Training exercises the next day and then last Tuesday, he had the team work on a few things after the Phillies came back the night before, even though the Mets held on to win.

Yet, Manuel does it in a professional way where it works.

When he took the job, Manuel was thought to be a Randolph clone, who was too laid back for the rigors of New York. That’s also been proven wrong. He was tossed twice from games in situations where Randolph would never have gotten the thumb and he seems to stick to his convictions, especially if his players are in the right. He defended Carlos Beltran when Brian Runge’s strike zone seemed to be a little too big and took a bump from the umpire, causing an apology – and Runge’s eventual one game suspension – the next day and then on Monday, Manuel got tossed again when Ryan Howard’s fan interfered ball was overruled as a home run.

It’s foolish for a manager to go out looking for the thumb, but there are times where an early shower is warranted, which is something Randolph never learned.

But Manuel seems to have benefitted from his past experiences. His six years as the manager of the White Sox seem to have prepared him for this job and he has gone on record saying he matured as a manager from that experience.

And as New York is seeing now, it’s paying off on the field in Queens.