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  #1  
Old 12-06-2005, 08:03 PM
TheRover TheRover is offline
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Default So the Dodgers\' new manager is...

Grady Little!

Frank McCourt is having a tremendous offseason.

At least this keeps the Cubs from hiring him after they get off their asses and fire Baker.
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  #2  
Old 12-06-2005, 11:51 PM
youtalkfunny youtalkfunny is offline
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Default Re: So the Dodgers\' new manager is...

(Crossposted from another site)

OMG, this is incredible.

I'm reading The Sports Guy's book right now, and JUST LAST NIGHT I got to the "Grady in the 2003 postseason" section. WATFO (What Are the Freaking Odds)???

Game 5 vs Oakland in the ALDS: Up by three in the bottom of the sixth, Grady brings in a defensive replacement for his #3 hitter--Damian Jackson for Todd Walker, a 15% upgrade at best. It's like watching The Handler instead of Hack on CBS; you're not really making or breaking your Friday night either way. More importantly, IT'S THE SIXTH FREAKING INNING! As (my friend) Hench says, "I've watched probably 500 baseball games this year. I've watched baseball all my life. And never, not once, have I seen a defensive replacement in the sixth inning. WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON???"

Both of us know instantly: This is coming back to haunt us. Either Jackson screws up a double play, or his spot comes up in a big at-bat. Something's going to happen. It's too dumb, too illogical. It's the Mike Hargrove Corollary: when a manager makes an indefensibly moronic move, that move always rears its ugly head in the end...well, unless you're Davey Johnson. In the playoffs, you shouldn't deviate from what you've been doing all season, unless it's an emergency or someone is trapped under something. When you start panicking, that's when you get into trouble. You don't take out your #3 hitter in the sixth inning, not with this bullpen. End of story.

(Now we're waiting for the other shoe to drop...)

Fast-forward to the seventh: 4-2, Jermaine Dye pops one into shallow center, Johnny Damon scurries under it...and here comes Jackson, and he won't stop running...and SPLAT! A sickening collision of heads, shades of Vinnie Johnson and Adrian Dantley in that Pistons-Celtics playoff game. Somehow, Nomar (the good sense to back up the play) and Bill Mueller (the good sense to cover the base) combine to nail Dye at second, yet another baserunning blunder by the A's (five in three games). But the carnage is immeasurable. We lose our leadoff hitter--poor Damon gets carried off on one of those depressing stretchers, the ones they should use in Vegas after a gambler gets demolished by a blackjack dealer. Damian Jackson remains in the game, woozy and a little disoriented, which gives him something in common with his manager. The team loses momentum, and then some. And Pedro has to endure a 10-minute delay, plus Boston's round of at-bats, before he returns for the eighth.

Now Hench and I are dying. We're dying. We spend 10 minutes trying to remember if anyone won the World Series with an incompetent manager, finally taking solace that it happened with Arizona and Bob Brenly just two years ago. Of course, Grady isn't done: he pinch-runs for Ortiz in the top of the ninth, meaning Grady has managed to eliminate our first, third, and fifth batters from the game--a game destined for extra innings, no less. Just an unbelievable run for Grady Little this week. He did everything but order the tiger to attack Roy....

(skip to the final out of the game, when the Grady bashing continues)

Derek Lowe came through. After Ramon Hernandez bunted the runners over and Grady moved the infield in--you know, just so any grounder could get through for the winning run--Lowe whiffed the backup catcher on an unhittable sinker. He pitched around Chris Singleton to load the bases, Grady moved the outfield back toward the fence so any single would win the game...and then Lowe whiffed the always atrocious Terrence Long on that same nasty sinker. Piece of cake. Never a doubt.


And remember, all that criticism of the Sox manager was written by a Sox fan on the night they won a playoff series. As you can imagine, it got worse in the next week or so, when Grady single-handedly gave the ALCS to the Yankees, culminating in Little's refusal to yank a spent Pedro Martinez in the 8th, no matter how ineffective he was.

The chapter "Funeral For A Friend" is a collection of reader e-mails that ran a few days after that all-time managerial boner:

Am I too young to have historical perspective, or is Grady Little the worst manager in the history of postseason baseball?
--Marin, Cambridge MA

At least the Grady Little Era is over.
--Frank M, Pittsfield MA

I guess Grady was saving his bullpen for Game 8.
--Steve M, Baltimore

What was a worse managerial decision: Duke and Rocky letting Apollo face Drago in the second round, or Grady letting Pedro face the Yankees in the eighth?
--Jon C, Singapore (notes Simmons, "I'm huge in Singapore)

(from a Yankee fan) As I sat watching the series, and Grady Little in particular, I was often reminded of one of my favorite sports quotes. Bobby Knight, who hated Dale Brown, said after a remarkable Indiana comeback, "I was worried about losing until I looked down the floor and saw Dale Brown. Then I knew we had a chance." That's pretty much what I felt on every shot of Grady Little in the Sox dugout.
--Jim D, Richmond VA

While watching the NFL, my wife once asked me, "Which guy is the quarterback?" She literally knows nothing about sports. Yet last night after the Bernie Williams hit in the eighth, she kept asking, "How come that guy is still pitching?" (Notes Simmons, "Ugh...even though they won the World Series the following year, these e-mails still kill me.")
--Al H, Los Angeles

When I took my girlfriend to Fenway for the first time, on the drive to Boston she asked me who the Green Monster was. I almost crashed into the wooden guardrail on Merritt Parkway...Anyway, on Thursday night she is watching the game with me and before I can even get the words out, even though I am screaming them in my head, she says, "Why are they not taking Pedro out?"
This from a person who seven weeks ago thought the Green Monster was actually a person. Now she even sees that Pedro needed to be pulled. Is this unbelievable or what?
--Greg E, Philadelphia
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  #3  
Old 12-07-2005, 12:04 AM
youtalkfunny youtalkfunny is offline
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Default Re: So the Dodgers\' new manager is...

ESPN just broke away from the basketball game for a 1-minute sports news update. I don't know who the anchor was who read the headlines, but you could tell by the sound of his voice that he was having trouble announcing a Grady Little signing with a straight face.
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  #4  
Old 12-07-2005, 02:45 AM
TheNoodleMan TheNoodleMan is offline
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Default Re: So the Dodgers\' new manager is...

The Grady Little hate is totally out of control.
The guy left his best pitcher in too long in the biggest game of the year and it turned out badly. That doesn't make him the worst manager of all time.
I think it is crazy that he gets so much grief while his successor got zero crap for wasting Pedro (who would have otherwise started game one of the WS) a year later in the 7th inning of game 7 with a 7 run lead. It is results oriented thinking at its finest.
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  #5  
Old 12-07-2005, 03:08 AM
kyro kyro is offline
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Default Re: So the Dodgers\' new manager is...

[ QUOTE ]
The Grady Little hate is totally out of control.

[/ QUOTE ]

Read this over several times.

[ QUOTE ]

The guy left his best pitcher in too long in the biggest game of the year and it turned out badly.

[/ QUOTE ]
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  #6  
Old 12-07-2005, 03:20 AM
TheNoodleMan TheNoodleMan is offline
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Default Re: So the Dodgers\' new manager is...

Try putting "his best pitcher" in bold. I'm not saying it was a great decision, but its not like he had a great bullpen either.
Francona wasting Pedro in game 7 with a 7 run lead is far tougher to explain, but he gets off because the team came through in the WS.
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  #7  
Old 12-07-2005, 03:31 AM
Jack of Arcades Jack of Arcades is offline
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Default Re: So the Dodgers\' new manager is...

Grady Little was questioned ALL YEAR. Also, read some of the game threads if you can find them. The decision was criticized as it was happening almost universally.
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  #8  
Old 12-07-2005, 03:48 AM
TheNoodleMan TheNoodleMan is offline
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Default Re: So the Dodgers\' new manager is...

I am not saying it wasn't a bad decision, just that I think he has taken more than enough crap for it.
I don't think it is completely awful for the Dodgers to give him another shot. He definitely wouldn't be my first choice, but I don't think that he shouldn't get a 2nd chance.
Speaking of guys who deserve a 2nd managerial job, why the hell doesn't Cito Gaston's name ever come up?
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  #9  
Old 12-07-2005, 10:18 AM
kenberman kenberman is offline
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Default Re: So the Dodgers\' new manager is...

[ QUOTE ]
but its not like he had a great bullpen either.

[/ QUOTE ]

go look at how they had performed down the stretch run


[ QUOTE ]
Francona wasting Pedro in game 7 with a 7 run lead is far tougher to explain

[/ QUOTE ]

uhhh, no.
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  #10  
Old 12-07-2005, 11:09 AM
imported_The Vibesman imported_The Vibesman is offline
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Default Re: So the Dodgers\' new manager is...

[ QUOTE ]
Try putting "his best pitcher" in bold. I'm not saying it was a great decision, but its not like he had a great bullpen either.
Francona wasting Pedro in game 7 with a 7 run lead is far tougher to explain, but he gets off because the team came through in the WS.

[/ QUOTE ]

Up until Game 7 ALCS 2003, the Sox 8th inning pitcher (Timlin) had allowed 0 ER in the playoffs that year, and their closer (Williamson) had allowed 1 ER, a meaningless solo home run while recording a save. They had been as close to automatic as you could get.

In Game 7 2004 ALCS, the Sox bullpen was completely destroyed from the marathon games earlier in the series, and they had a game plan to go to their best pitchers first. Hence, Pedro for an inning, to help build a bridge to Foulke. As it was, if he was able to get out w/o much work, it could be treated like a side session.

I for one was happy w/ Pedro starting Game 3 of the WS. Game 3 tends to be the most important game of any 7-game series - a team up 2-0 has the chance to go 3-0, a dominating lead, or can go down to 2-1, barely even a lead. Tied 1-1, you have the chance to take the lead or lose it, and down 2-0 you have the chance to get back in the series, or go down a scary 3-0. Add to that the fact that the Cardinals had been incredible at home the whole playoffs, I thought it was good to have our best pitcher there to shut them down and keep them from building any momentum.
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