"Sometimes (and this may be a column subject soon), I sense fans want the manager to do what they can't do -- punish the players for not being good enough or coming up big in certain situations... It's all about players, especially pitching. My main point isn't that Manuel deserves a lifetime gig, but that the focus MUST be on the players where it belongs.- Phil Sheridan, once again making sense in his Philadelphia Inquirer Q&A forum. The latest rumor is that the Phillies will fire Charlie Manuel and replace him with... Dallas Green, currently a special assistant to the team. That would sort of blow a hole in the idea that Manuel is "old and out of touch," considering that the 72-year-old Green is ten years older than the current manager. But he did manage the Phils to their only World Series win, just 26 years ago.
Nothing brings out the talk-radio idiots like a Phillies cold streak. I heard two all-timers this week, both on Howard Eskin's show: A caller Wednesday recommended, in all serious, that the Phils fire Manuel and hire... a buddy of his, who currently manages in a rec league in South Jersey. "But, he's really good!" Then, Thursday, one of the day's 50 or so Bobby Abreu bashers suggested that the Phils try to package Abreu and David Bell to the Yankees for... A-Rod. I thought Eskin's head would explode when he heard that one.
Posted by Stephen Silver at June 23, 2006 01:46 AM