Amid news that Phillies manager Charlie Manuel and his entire coaching staff have been retained comes fightin' words from Manuel's fiancee, Melissa Martin (yes, Charlie- who is 61 but could pass for 10 years older- has a fiancee.)
In a Philadelphia Daily News piece by the gloriously palindromic Mark Kram, Manuel makes clear that he enjoys Philadelphia, likes managing the Phillies, and neither reads the papers nor listens to talk radio. His galpal, however, isn't quite as charitable, and sinks into her own little Brenda Warner moment in bashing Charlie-haters in the press and fanbase:
And yet Martin says they have found Philadelphia to be unlike any other in that there is such "a culture of negativity."Having his galpal defend him to the press, I suspect, isn't going to win Charlie any points with his detractors. But regardless, a more apt analogy of how Philly's sports culture works, I am yet to hear.The word she uses to describe it is "relentless."
She says, pointedly: "If you were married to a woman that was a complete shrew and just bitched at you constantly - you know, 'Pick up your dirty socks,' 'You slurp your soup' - constantly haranguing you, that gets old. And it does get old to him."
Philly fans hate it when players complain about being booed, when it's only a natural reaction to the relentless negativity- and besides, none of the complaining by Phils players comes close on the loathsomeness scale to the sort of stuff pulled off on a regular basis by Mr. TO.
Manuel may not be baseball's smartest manager, but I'm convinced his unpopularity in Philly has a great deal more to do with the way he looks and talks than anything to do with his talent as a manager. And since he managed to lead the Phils to 88 wins- their best season in 12 years- and kept them in the race until 5:00 PM on the last day of the season while presiding over a harmonious clubhouse, there's really no way to justify firing him after one year. Ed Wade, on the other hand...
Posted by Stephen Silver at October 6, 2005 07:15 AMThere's no way that Charlie Manuel's fiancee could be as bad as Jackie Christie.
Although she seemed very familiar with her analogy ...
Posted by: LilB at October 6, 2005 12:03 PM