* The Philadelphia Phillies have thrown general manager Ed Wade an anchor. The Associated Press phrased it thus: "Wade has two years remaining on his contract and it's unknown whether he'll remain in the organization. Wade was very unpopular in Philadelphia, especially after he hired Charlie Manuel as manager to replace Larry Bowa."
Bowa took the Phillies no closer than third place in the NL East in three seasons; Manuel has taken them now to two consecutive second-place finishes (and one game short of the wildcard this season). God help Wade if the Phillies hung on to him one more year and they finally overthrew the Braves in the East. He would have had to be guillotined. Preferably, at home plate.
* Overheard during the October 6 telecast of the Houston Astros at the Atlanta Braves was FOX color commentator and former major leaguer Steve Lyons:
"You look at the playoffs this year, and the Red Sox, and the success they had last year, in finally breaking The Curse and winning a World Series championship, and now the White Sox have them down, 2-0, and ironically, the last time the Red Sox had won a World Series, the White Sox had won the next two, and then they hadn't won one since then."
Perhaps someone will be kind enough to send Mr. Lyons a copy of Eight Men Out and any given volume addressing the Red Sox B.P.L.* He might learn some things that only begin with the White Sox a) having won the 1917 World Series but gone to their next Series after the Red Sox won the 1918 Series; b) having blown that next Series by way of a little (ahem), mischief, courtesy of the title of the first book; and, c) having blown the 1920 American League pennant after Charlie Comiskey suspended the Eight Men Out** (well, seven: Chick Gandil, the likely original instigator of the scheme, had quit the game before the 1920 season), while the White Sox were still in a race with the Cleveland Indians.
Lyons appeared in the underrated For Love of the Game, as the television colour commentator for the fictitious Detroit Tiger pitcher Billy Chapel's season-and-career-ending perfect game against the Yankees. The play-by-play man in the same film: no less than Vin Scully. And Lyons has just spent his first season's employment as a member of the Dodgers' broadcasting team. Whatever impressions he has drawn from Scully, historical accuracy seems paramount among the missing.
* The Baltimore Orioles seem to think it takes a former Cy Young Award winner to do by himself what he could not do in tandem with a mere back-end starting pitcher. They have demoted Jim Beattie to an offer to stay as a consultant while handing Mike Flanagan the executive vice presidency, with a mandate to end eight consecutive seasons of losing baseball.
Together, their best was signing Miguel Tejada; together, their worst was signing a downsloping Sammy Sosa. Together, they oversaw the losing interrupted by a surprising grip on the American League East early in 2005; together, they saw their handpicked manager Lee Mazzilli in over his head and bench coach Sam Perlozzo trying from there to salvage the unsalvageable. Together, their worst bid for a starting pitcher was signing Sidney Ponson to three years at $22.5 million before 2004; together, their best was dumping Ponson after a second DUI that followed his first boxing match with a judge.
Alone, Flanagan just might represent even a modest resurrection of what they once called the Oriole Way. Assuming owner Peter Angelos doesn't tell him, "Don't even think about it."
* Jim Tracy's unemployment lasted about a day past a week. What a surprise, considering nobody blamed him for the Los Angeles Dodgers' 2005 collapse, except the general manager who thinks managers ought to be seen and not heard, until or unless the manager makes a move defiant of the general manager's master plan. Tracy has been hired to manage the Pittsburgh Pirates. What a surprise, too, considering he has been friendly with their general manager, Dave Littlefield, since their days together in the organization of the team formerly known as the Montreal Expos.
And, Tracy actually has a chance to bring the Pirates back to respectability. What a surprise, again, the Pirates having broken in a small cadre of lively rookies in 2005's second half, and Tracy none too shabby in nurturing and enhancing young players no matter their personalities. Their new kindergarten made the Pirates interesting to watch in the final weeks of the season. Their new manager may make them fun to watch next season.
* Getting it right regarding Harriet the Mere: That is what The Wall Street Journal's e-mail newsletter, Best of the Web, has done:
Mediocre people are, of course, entitled to representation. That's what Congress is for. But the federal courts are not a representative institution, and the charge of elitism is a strange one in this context. After all, it's called the Supreme Court, not the Court of Common Place.
The Journal's political columnist, John Fund gets it just as right. If you have a mind to traipse around the crowd of political message boards and portals, you will notice a rather bloated volume of President Bush's defenders daring to suggest that merely asking for and examining Ms. Miers on her record (she has one, in Texas politics, believe it or not) equals character assassination. (Not even her most obstreperous critics, to my knowledge, has accused Ms. Miers yet of being anything other than a good person.) And they once denounced Bill Clinton's acolytes for the same accusation, when the focus was the record as opposed to the then-President's personal behavior.
On October 5, George F. Will wrote thus:
[T]he president has forfeited his right to be trusted as a custodian of the Constitution. The forfeiture occurred March 27, 2002, when, in a private act betokening an uneasy conscience, he signed the [John] McCain-[Russ] Feingold law expanding government regulation of the timing, quantity, and content of political speech. The day before the 2000 Iowa caucuses he was asked — to ensure a considered response from him, he had been told in advance that he would be asked — whether McCain-Feingold's core purposes are unconstitutional. He unhesitatingly said, "I agree." Asked if he thought presidents have a duty, pursuant to their oath to defend the Constitution, to make an independent judgment about the constitutionality of bills and to veto those he thinks unconstitutional, he briskly said, "I do."
The cronyism issue (do not make the mistake of believing it false) is the secondary issue. Trust me. If you'll pardon the expression.
* B.P.L. — Before the Promised Land.
** — The Yankees and the Red Sox had offered to lend Comiskey players to finish the pennant race, and called on their fellow American League owners to do likewise — a symbolic gesture, of course, but notable regardless.
October 12, 2005
Bob B.:
Who told you this?
This is wrong: “Bowa took the Phillies no closer than third place in the NL East in three seasons; Manuel has taken them now to two consecutive second-place finishes (and one game short of the wildcard this season).
And this makes no sense: “God help Wade if the Phillies hung on to him one more year and they finally overthrew the Braves in the East. He would have had to be guillotined. Preferably, at home plate.”
October 13, 2005
Monica:
I will agree that signing Sidney Ponson for as much as the Orioles did was a mistake after just one good year, but Beattie and Flanagan’s worst mistake? I doubt it. Had he not been a pretty easy to diagnose alcoholic (and certainly the team knew this) it could have been a good move. I’m not sure who chose not to intervene after the beach fight but before the DUIs, but it should have been done, and then alleged best move they made might have been avoided. (I do not feel releasing a guy with a disease, who really does not see his problem, is quite right-this was the opportunity to give him a choice of rehab or no job. My guess is he has gone to rehab, AND lost his job anyway. This could backfire on the team, since Sidney is still going to be only 29 and if his alcohol problem is addressed, he could do quite well in 2006 and beyond, but not for the Orioles. (And was his release Beattie and Flanagan’s work, anyway?) People are too down on Ponson, and most of it has to do with his salary and lack of stellar stats-well, he never had them prior to 2003, what did they honestly expect? Better than they got, sure-but given the progressive nature of alcoholism and the fact Sidney had never apparently quit drinking or been to rehab, why couldn’t people see this coming? I am shocked at the lack of knowledge the team showed about a common disease (about one in ten drinkers is an alcoholic) and their regressive approach to it-an alcoholic will rarely get help on his own, it is a very deceptive disease. To me, Sidney’s release was the WORST move the team made, just because they should have seen the trouble coming and been ready with a progressive approach on getting Ponson the help he needed. (I blame the Players’ Union for this, too-they protect privacy over health and welfare of the player.)
One more thing-I feel no one seems to see the trade the team made of Ponson to the Giants in 2003 seemed to upset him, and perhaps set Sidney up for the lousy 2004 he had. That was the first time he was traded, and I have a feeling he felt unloved-yet resigned with the team that traded him? Sidney has been called sensitive, with a “fragile psyche”-should this reaction have shocked the team? Money is not enough to resolve the feelings I think Sidney had after that trade. Maybe it was his problem, but the Orioles knew him, and much of what he’s done “wrong” they really should have foreseen. If I invested 22 million in someone, i think I’d check on him, espeically if I suspected he was an alcoholic. What a shame it came down to what it did.