Brad Mills – USA TODAY Sports
First of all, Charlie Manuel had never had a losing season with the Philadelphia Phillies up until this year, so to fire him in the midst of their first real slump in nine years is incredibly hasty. I mean, his career record with the Phillies is 1,416-780, winning the division five out of nine years and winning one World Series and an NL Pennant. But one bad year and the guy has to go?
Slow your roll, Philadelphia.
This is a bad move. Their identity crisis is clearly worsening. How can Chase Utley get an extension and Manuel get fired? They are the same era of Phillies. If the team is looking to succeed by next year, as they seemed to be doing by extending Utley, then why get rid of Manuel, who has led the team so well in the past, and is a part of the Utley, Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins era?
If the team is building towards the future, then the move makes sense; clear out the old and bring up the new guys. But once Utley was signed, they pretty much forfeited this approach, at least for another couple years.
Manuel was a great manager for the Phillies, and deserved much more than to be fired in this fashion. As the Phillies manager, he had a better win percentage than Joe Torre, Tony LaRussa, Sparky Anderson, Tommy Lasorda and Lou Piniella, just to name a few.
What if the Los Angeles Dodgers had fired Lasorda after repeating a 73-89 season in 1986 and 1987? They would have missed out on their 1988 World Series title.
It was an unnecessary and unprofessional move that should never happen at the MLB level.
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