| Time To Fire Manuel |
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| Writers Article Archive | |
| Written by John Stolnis | |
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Like sands through the hourglass… so are the managerial days of Charlie Manuel’s life with the Philadelphia Phillies. It has officially gotten ugly at Citizens Bank Park. A 3-9 start. Inconsistent starting pitching. A horrific bullpen. Hitters choking in the clutch. The manager and a radio talk show host almost coming to blows. This is as bad as it gets. Take Tuesday’s night atrocity against the Mets. Freddy Garcia, making his first start in a Phillies uniform, couldn’t make it out of the 5th. The offense went 0-13… oh for friggin’ 13!!!… with runners in scoring position, a continuation of a season-long trend (.200 w/RISP in ’07). The bullpen gave up another five runs in 4 1/3 innings. It was as bad a baseball game as a team can play. But perhaps the most telling example of how dead the Phillies are was when the entire team failed to come off the field after three outs were recorded in the top of the sixth inning. After a botched suicide squeeze by the Mets resulted in OF Shawn Green being tagged out in a rundown between third and home, the final out of the inning, every Phillie in the field stayed put. Center fielder Aaron Rowand blamed the confusion on Phils catcher Carlos Ruiz throwing the ball down to third base after tagging out Green. Nonetheless, you never want to have the umpires instruct your baseball team that the requisite three outs have been recorded. Heck, with this bullpen, you’d think these guys would want to get off the field as quickly as possible. All of which led to Tuesday night’s meltdown between Charlie Manuel and WIP host Howard Eskin. Eskin, long a critic of Manuel, challenged the Phillies skipper as to why he didn’t yell at his players more and show more fire. Manuel’s response was to challenge Eskin to meet in his office. Some yelling and curse words ensued. Charlie apparently does know how to yell. A manager going off on a reporter is a situation that never ends well. History teaches that it’s never a good idea for a player or member of the coaching staff to physically or verbally attack a member of the media. The Phillies are coming apart at the seams. For the record, I am someone who has been a defender of Charlie Manuel. Under his tenure, the Phils have had a winning record and been in contention for the Wild Card every year. But at some point, close isn’t good enough. And for the Phillies, after Jimmy Rollins’ declaration that they are the team to beat in the NL East and all their crowing about how important it was to get off to a fast start in ‘07, this season was seen as the year the Phils would make “the leap.” But it hasn’t happened. In fact, the Phillies have looked dead from the start of spring training. They have been lifeless since the very first pitch was thrown in Clearwater. And the Phils do not have injuries to use as an excuse. They are relatively healthy. They did not pitch well all spring, they did not hit well all spring, and they did not play good defense all spring. They made no attempt to put an emphasis on winning games while in Clearwater. They said they’d be fine when the season started. But this April from hell has been a continuation of a listless and lifeless March. And that, I blame on the manager. Which is why, Charlie Manuel needs to be fired. Will his firing be the answer? Probably not. After all, Larry Bowa was the antithesis of Charlie Manuel and the Phillies played exactly the same way under his tutelage. I’m not sure any manager can get Ryan Howard, Aaron Rowand, Carlos Ruiz or Chase Utley to hit better in the clutch or get this bullpen to get people out. But it’s pretty clear that this team needs a change. The Phillies need a shakeup. They’re already 5 ½ games behind the Braves and 5 behind the Mets. They need a new direction, and firing Charlie Manuel should be the first step. The Phillies need a change before it’s too late. If it isn’t too late already. |
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