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| Photo by Richard Wilkins Jr. |
I don't care how many stupid moves he made in-game, Charlie Manuel was a lot better manager than we gave him credit for while here, which is totally fair. You never want to heap praise on the guy while they're here. Charlie got a lot out of his players though, and did the spectacular feat of keeping a team consistently winning for his first seven seasons in town. After two near-miss second places, his teams reeled off five straight division titles, and took us all for a wild ride.
Charlie will always be associated in Philadelphia with the 2008 World Championship team. He and Dallas Green are the only two managers who can say they won a title with the Phillies, and for that reason Charlie took on an almost cult-hero status. As the team has gone downhill the last two years, obviously Charlie has taken some hits with that. Clearly though, the talent he managed was down. That was without question.
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| Photo by Richard Wilkins Jr. |
It will be interesting to see how that talent and their new manager mesh. Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, and Cole Hamels make up essentially the core of the Phillies greatest run in club history, and Charlie Manuel is the only manager they have ever known. Charlie's firing follows on the heels of exits by players such as Shane Victorino, Jayson Werth, Pat Burrell, Raul Ibanez, Jamie Moyer, and Brad Lidge, to name a few of the key pieces of that great run. It is tempting to declare it dead and over, because it feels like it, however with the "core four" all still here, it's hard to say that.
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| Photo by Richard Wilkins Jr. |
We tended to laugh at Charlie and almost not take him serious, but it's important to remember that his track record was pretty good. All-in-all, in addition to his 1,000 wins and World Series title, he won two NL titles and six divisions as well as a manager (one in Cleveland). He was the hitting coach for two AL Champion teams in Cleveland as well. He coached a cadre of the game's best hitters of recent times, most notably the beloved Jim Thome, who swore by him. In fact, most people credit Thome with Manuel's hire before the 2005 season. It was a hire that I must admit I was furious over, like so many other fans. I wanted the Phillies to hire Jim Leyland. Until 2007, I even wanted to see Charlie fired. Then again, I also wanted Gerry Hunsicker over Pat Gillick before 2006 too…
As I said above, Charlie's defining moment in Philadelphia will be the 2008 title, and rightfully so. No, he won't get the distinction of being the greatest baseball manager in Philadelphia history because of Connie Mack, but he is the best of the Phillies bunch. Charlie's teams treated us to so many other great moments, from the comebacks on the Mets, to winning a club record 102 games, to having the best offense in baseball in his early years here. It's a shame that he had to finish with the 2013 team, but it had to end somehow. I'll tend to remember him in Philadelphia for the happy times- the 2008's, 2007's ,and 2011's of his time.
Good luck, Cholly.
