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| From the Phillies Facebook |
Charlie Manuel gets ripped for lots of things- playing Michael Martinez, bad in-game moves, not being willing to move certain players in the order, and more. He mostly deserves those shots, and soon those things will end- I see no way that Charlie is back in 2014. With his contract running out, the Phillies will move on after two straight disappointing seasons, and a string of declining results after 2008's World Series win (though to be fair, the team was really good for three seasons after that). The odds are that Ryne Sandberg will bring a younger, more savvy approach to the team after this season, and maybe a little tougher love for a team that could probably use it.
I'm not going to lie and say I'm looking forward to it though. Last night was the 1,000th win of Charlie Manuel's managerial career, most of which happened in a Phillies cap. He managed the only World Series win I ever got to see, and lead the greatest era of baseball in Phillies history. Unlike the 1980 team, he did not have legendary Hall-of-Famers like Mike Schmidt, Steve Carlton, or Pete Rose (who I know is not in the HOF). Sure, he had some great players, some borderline Cooperstown stock (only Doc would appear to be a lock to me), but not literally three of the top 20 players to ever live. Charlie got the most out of very good players, and managed to win a World Series, and 1,000 wins out of that.
I'm ready for the Charlie era to end. I'm just not going to stand here and pretend that the future is necessarily better than what he gave us. So here's to Charlie Manuel. Great job Chuck.
