Wow, things are really getting nutty now. Charlie Manuel reportedly challenged Howard Eskin to a fight last night. Now had he actually fought Eskin and beaten his ass, we would clamoring for the Phils to sign Charlie to a lucrative extension. But instead there was just some yelling and, at the end of the day, all we have is the second worst team in the majors (only the Royals, who my intramural softball team beat a few weeks ago, are worse) and Howard Eskin still on the air.
I have to admit, I like Charlie, and this makes me like him even more (We’re both from VA, so that makes us peoples). And it’s not his fault that the only player on this team that can hit is the one we were most worried about (Pat the Bat) and that if you sent up a decent junior high team against major league pitching I really don’t think they would do worse than .200 with runners in scoring position. But the fact is that he’s not a good National League manager, and I can’t understand why the Phillies will yet again let the best available manager get signed by someone else while we sit on our thumbs and get worse and worse. You would have thought we would have learned when we let Jim Leyland go. Yet Joe Girardi continues to announce games, will get signed eventually, and turn some team around. But hey, look at the bright side: since we are trailing every game by the 5th inning, we haven’t even really had to deal with our biggest weakness, the bullpen. So the $64,000 question is: Will Charlie make it out of April?