This is a tough one. All year in fact since he took over the team from Larry Bowa, I’ve been telling everyone what a bum Charles Manuel Jr. was as a manager of the Phillies.
I think I’ve pretty well detailed over the years the mistakes he made in the dugout, etc. How I wish he would have been harder on the players something like a Bowa. I think I’ve even said he ranked right up there with Terry Francona as one of the team’s worst managers ever.
Don’t get me wrong, I am and always will be a Bowa man. He played the game the right way and managed the only way to knew how too. I will always believe that if the players bought into Bowa’s style, there would have been other championships.
So, I am big enough to admit when I made a mistake and can say that Charlie was a perfect fit for this team, despite some of his strategic shortcomings. Basically, he did it my letting the players play and if they needed a kick in the rear, he did it in private.
He benched MVP Jimmy Rollins for not hustling. That could have been a pivotal moment of the season for the Phils. Instead of tanking the season, it seemed like the team responded.
He had run-ins with run-ins with two other players, Brett Myers and Pat Burrell. He soothed their egos.
Sometimes I think at the professional level, managers and coaches overkill things with their strategy. Charlie will never be confused with some of the greats of the game in that department, but he was skilled enough to only lose two games during the run to the World Series.
My hats off for that.
Charlie and Dallas Green are the only two Phillie managers to win a World Series. Yes, they are probably the best two in team history.
I like Dallas because of his hard nose approach to the game, which worked in 1980, but I'm not sure it would work today. Heck, had it not been for the strike of 1981, he may have won back-to-back titles. Had it not been for that strike, who knows.
So that brings us to Charlie, not exactly the brightest in my mind when it comes to strategy. I lost count of how many games he may have cost us during the regular season.
But down the stretch (I sound like someone calling a horse race), 99 percent of the time he was brilliant.
I've written a lot about Charlie, Chuckles, Bobblehead, Chuck, and many other names, about how his country-bumpkin style and his lack of baseball strategy was killing the team and its fans. I and many others thought he needed to be more hard-nosed, and while I still feel that way, maybe his style works.
Maybe it's because I am old school when it comes to baseball and many other sports. Perhaps its time I get with the new school, but in some ways, I'm too darn old to do that I guess I may have been wrong about Charlie. Maybe he was the right person for the job after all. Perhaps had Larry Bowa stayed, we would have never reached this pinnacle. Perhaps had they hired Jim Leyland instead, maybe he would have been “out of there” by now getting a pack of smokes.
It took a World Series title, a ring, so to speak, to change my attitude about Charlie. He may have been the best fit for the club.
And if he gets us back to the Promised Land again next year, well, who knows. But next year is a long way off and we need to enjoy the success of this season until then.
Got to admit, I may have been wrong about Charlie's managerial ability. Well, at least this year.
Labels: Charlie, World Champs
