Hire this man immediately. (Good call, Garrett. He posted it in the comment section). Leo Mazzone is one of the greatest assistant coaches in MLB history and after his suicide mission in Baltimore, is available. Fire Rich Dubee and hire this guy today.

Thoughts? Concerns? Did you really think for a second that they might go after Joe Torre or Joe Girardi? I think they signed him ASAP so they wouldn’t get hounded by Phillies fans if Torre became available and they didn’t go after him. I’ll also repost what I posted on beerleaguer yesterday:
Here’s what concerns me: I kind of think Manuel got bailed out with a truly terrible bullpen. In other words, since every pitcher other than Romero and Myers was downright awful, he really couldn’t make a bad choice when he went to his bullpen because they were all likely to fail. If the team does get bullpen help, I’m scared we’ll see more of what we saw in Game 2, moves that don’t really make much sense.

However, I like Charlie, and I really like how he’s handled the harsh environment in Philly. I don’t think he gets enough credit for his attack on Eskin. Suddenly, with the team 4-11, the focus was on him and not on the team sucking, and they seemed to right the ship after that. I really want him to succeed, but they have to have someone on that bench who is in charge of the bullpen. He’s a great hitting coach, but he’s clueless with pitching and they need someone better than Dubee telling him what to do.

I remember when Utley went down with an injury, and I said to Trivia Art, “Well, I think that may do it for our Fightin’s.” Art strongly disagreed. “Oh yeah, like they’re gonna break our hearts in August. This team isn’t going down without a fight, if only to make the pain in September more acute.” Well, I feel the same way about this series. This team isn’t gonna get their asses kicked for three straight games. A) They’re too good to do that. B) This team seems to thrive with their backs against the wall and C) That wouldn’t break our hearts. Winning games 3 and 4 and then losing game 5 at home would break our hearts.

Teams never come back from 2-0 down after losing twice at home. But teams also don’t come from 7 down with 17 to play, teams don’t make the playoffs with a bullpen that consists of guys who haven’t been good since “Teen Spirit” was released, and teams sure as hell don’t make the playoffs when two of their starters go down for the year, one goes to the bullpen, and one is the worst starter in baseball. This is a team that has defied every law of baseball this year, and has fought like a rabid animal every time they’ve been backed into a corner, so don’t expect them to go quietly into that good night. I’ve seen too many crazy things happen this year. I’m not throwing in the towel until the final out of the final game is made.

Good stuff from Jayson Stark at ESPN.com:
Charlie Manuel isn’t the first manager in postseason history to gong his starting pitcher in the fourth inning. He isn’t the first manager to wave for a reliever who found himself muttering later about that “one bad pitch” he tossed up there. But he was the first manager in the history of his franchise to yank his starting pitcher in the fourth inning of a postseason game even though he had the lead. And when a manager puts himself that far out there on a limb that precarious, here are the rules of October:
He’d better be right.

Phil Sheridan disagreed. Good luck on this one, Phil. When 46,000 people boo because they see a manager make a bad decision and then get completely validated by the results, you can be damn sure that the manager is going to hear about it. Forever. Charlie has made plenty of bonehead moves, but this will be the one that he’ll be forever defined by. Says Stark:
20 years from now, the manager shouldn’t be shocked if some total stranger approaches him in a restaurant and asks: “Why the heck did you take Kendrick out?”

This team has made a habit of striking back when the chips are down. They’re gonna be fine. Remember like a week ago when they lost the first game against the Braves and then had to beat Smoltz and Hudson? Yeah, well now they have to win two, but they don’t face anyone as good as either Smoltz or Hudson. I just hate that it’s a day game and this team can’t hit the ball in the daylight for some reason.

That being said, the crowd sucked yesterday. The home town faithful have gotten so spoiled on home runs this season that they can’t appreciate really good pitching. The crowd has got to get fired up, and if the umpire today never figures out what the strike zone is like the ump yesterday, let him know about it!

Oh, and good news for the team. I’m going to today’s game. They are 1-0 in the last 1 games I have attended. The numbers are in our favor.

Let’s celebrate at quizzo tonight when the Phils win!

It was right before the All Star break when this frustrated, injured, and underachieving team finally hooked us all for good. And that was when they ran out into a squall to help save the grounds crew in Denver. It was probably the first time we’d cheered the damn team all year, struggling as they were at the time to reach .500. And now here we are, playing that same team. The Rockies stayed in the clubhouse, the Phils worked in the rain. Karmically, I’m feeling pretty good about this series.

Jose Mesa made the postseason roster! Other interesting notes from the roster: my boy Rod Barajas made the cut. Apparently Ruiz has a sore shoulder, so we could see a fair amount of Coste in the playoffs. Adam Eaton did not make the final cut. To be honest, I felt pretty bad for him at the pep rally yesterday when the only person who got booed louder than Eaton was Mayor Street. I mean, my dream in life is to get booed by 150,000 people, but I wanna get booed for being an a******, not for sucking.

Hey remember when Eskin went after Charlie after the 4-11 start and said that Charlie should throw a fit to get his players fired up, and instead of going after his players, Charlie went after Eskin? Yeah, well the team was 85-62 after that, best in the NL by far. Charlie pisses me off sometimes, but I can’t help but like the guy, especially now. With this team on the ropes, he took all the pressure off them and put it on himself. Lou Pinella did the same thing a few months later and everybody called him a genius. Charlie did it and everybody called him a knucklehead. Well, vindication must be sweet. Now, if we can just get him to finish the job and beat the hell out of Eskin to get the team fired up for the playoffs.
RELATED: Great article about Charlie that includes this amazing quote: We had 13 kids in my family and I used to have to fight for my breakfast.

I had a free ticket to Sunday’s game, and I almost didn’t take it. Those of you who follow this blog know that the Phils lose almost every time I go to a game (I honestly think that before Sunday they were 3-13 in games I went to this year, including the opening day loss, the 10,000th loss, and the loss on Saturday), and I was going to honestly blame myself if I showed up and they lost again. But a free ticket is a free ticket, so off I went with my buddy Brian.

We sat beside a father-son duo. The father was in his 80s and the son was in his 50s. They were both delightful to talk to, and it was obvious that they had been to dozens of games together over the years. They had been through a lot of frustration together over the years, but not today. The energy at CBP reached a fevered pitch, the crowd began to sense a victory, and the towels began to wave furiously after every called strike. The grandfatherly man leaned over toward me, smiled and said, “This is the greatest day I’ve ever had at the ballpark.”

Things only got better. After the game, I ran into D-Mac, and we headed toward the subway. Before getting on, I saw a couple of people wearing “Phillies-NL East Champions” shirts. I asked, “Where did you get those from?” Before they could answer, a 20-something gentleman leaned forward and asked brusquely, “How many do you need?” I answered two, and he rolled up his pant leg, showing off the new white shirts tied around his leg, giving new meaning to the term bootlegging. We each bought a shirt for ten bucks and hit the Express.

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