Ken Macha was fired as the A's coach...

[ScreamingMeemie]

:( I feel badly for him. He's a decent guy.

http://www.comcast.net/sports/index.jsp?cat=SPORTS&fn=/2006/10/16/500131.html

snip-

OAKLAND, Calif. - Ken Macha was fired as manager of the Oakland Athletics on Monday, two days after the AL West champions were swept out of the playoffs by Detroit.

Macha had two years left on his contract. The A's went 368-280 in his four seasons as manager, but have frustrated management and their fans by failing to get into the World Series.

Oakland won the West with a 93-69 record this year. After sweeping Minnesota in three games in the first round of the playoffs, the A's were eliminated by Detroit in four straight in the AL championship series.

[Oeditpus Rex]

1. Managers are hired to be fired

And they all know it.



Okay, it's becoming clearer: The A's will hire Piniella and the Giants will bring back Baker.

Chaos will ensue. :bounce:

[ScreamingMeemie]

2. The Cubs are announcing that Piniella has been signed to a three

year deal... still kinda foggy. :D

[Oeditpus Rex]

6. Oh. my. DOG!

Sweet Louuuuuuuuuuu in Chicago?

reyd reid reed is gonna .



:scared:

[ScreamingMeemie]

9. Here's the link...

http://www.comcast.net/sports/index.jsp?cat=SPORTS&fn=/2006/10/16/500081.html

[reyd reid reed]

11. That's putting it mildly.

:nuke:

What the FUCK???? Of all the managers floating right now...and they interviewed Girardi...who played for the club and grew up with them and gave the Marlins a better year than they ever should've had. Only got fired because he told the owner to leave the officials alone to do their fucking job, not because he can't manage.

They interviewed Brenley...again, knows the team and the players and has more experience than Girardi.

I could've lived with either of those.

And they hire Lou Fuckin' Piniella? Who led the Tampa Bay Devil Rays to such lofty heights?

:mad:

Fuckin'. HENDRY.

Betcha.

GAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

So much for my dreams of 2008.

And where's my sad smiley when I want him?

FUCKASS!!!







Okay...I'm done. All better now. Yeah....riiiiiight

[Oeditpus Rex]

13. Look — you know as well as anyone

that the great majority of managers are over-rated. Once in a great while you'll get one who can squeeze more out of a ball club than it seems capable of — Leo Durocher being foremost among them, with a nod to Billy Martin — but throughout baseball history, the "great" managers have had winning records because they had the players, and vice versa.

More often, though, it's vice versa, because even if a manager is a tactical genius, he may also be an asshole whose players don't respect him. And that makes a ball club play below its capacity better'n anything.

Thus am I now supporting your argument. :7

[leftofthedial]

15. managers can't help the club much

they sure can screw it up though

[reyd reid reed]

18. And that's one thing I'm sure Piniella's gonna

excel at.

It's gonna be a long three years.

[leftofthedial]

19. Aww, it's the cubbies

it's not like they were gonna win anyway.

(I'm a recovering Cubs fan)

[reyd reid reed]

20. True...

but now even the tiniest glimmer of hope...the last vestiges of positive thinking...my poetic dream of and epic 2008 season...

Dashed.


*sigh*

[leftofthedial]

21. with so many bars near Wrigley

Lou will be too hammered to mess things up much

[reyd reid reed]

28. *snort*

One can only hope.

[Oeditpus Rex]

22. There're really only two things a manager can do

Make a good lineup card and motivate players.

If they can do the first, they don't need the second. If they can't do the second, the first ain't gonna help.

[leftofthedial]

26. that's pretty much it

I suppose some managers may make a plus-two-or three-game a year difference over the course of a season if they handle the pitching staff extremely well.

But a moron can cost them eight or nine games a year.

[reyd reid reed]

29. And that's what I worry about...

that he can't do EITHER.

:mad:



yeah, I'm still annoyed. Gonna be until...oh...2010?

[Oeditpus Rex]

30. Well, it's the Cubs

What can you do with a lineup card with that club? Keep a Yahtzee score?




:hide:




As for motivation, he might motivate 'em to quit.

[reyd reid reed]

32. Nah...

It's the Cubs. They've got heart.

And My Barrett.

Piniella...pfffft.



And you'd Better hide...

[Oeditpus Rex]

33. They Gotta have heart

Miles and miles and miles of heart

When the odds are sayin' they'll never win

That's when the grin should start

[reyd reid reed]

36. Hey....heart counts for a lot...that's why the Yankees are...

well...the Yankees. Steinbrenner ain't got one. Gimme my Cubbies any day of the week, month, year, *gulp* century.

And yeah, yeah, I know. It's almost been one.

S'okay, though.

They's still My Cubbies.

So there.

Neener.

[_testify_]

51. In the NL, they can manage the bullpen a little more strategically.

But other than that, I agree on all points.

[Broken_Hero]

23. damn, Lou did a good job

in 2001, with the M's...as an M fan, I never would have guessed the Mariners would win 116 games...if you told me that they would win 116 games, before that season started, I would have laughed at you...that lineup was sooo lacking in power, and most of the players IMO were scrubs, with the exception of Ichiro(rookie at the time), Edgar Martinez, John Olerud.....Boone had a break out year...the rest of the team...was blah...the pitching staff, their ace was Jamie freaking Moyer...I do admit their bullpen/closer was good/great...

[reyd reid reed]

31. I guess it just proves

that there's an exception to every rule.

:shrug:

[reformedrepub]

34. Give it up...

Baaaaaaaaaaaa says the billygoat...become a Metropolitans fan...There is room here on the bandwagon.

[reyd reid reed]

37. Nah...I'm loyal.

Goats or not.

BUT...for what it's worth...I'm picking the Mets to beat the Cards. Sadly, I also think the Tigers'll beat the Mets.

You win some, you lose some.

:shrug:

[reformedrepub]

39. We are a team of destiny

destined to get swept by Magglio the Mullet man.....

[reyd reid reed]

40. *thud*

Did I...no...impossible...

[reformedrepub]

42. Hey baby

Im a realist.....

[Zomby Woof]

57. Lou was the BEST manager they ever had

In 1995, they were 13 or so games out of first by August... then with the convergence of an Angels collapse and a resurgence of the M's, they won the tiebreaker with California and won the West, making the playoffs for the first time in their troubled history. Their classic ALDS win over the Yankees was the BEST PLAYOFF SERIES EVER - matched only by the 2004 ALCS. It erased the '94 strike for most of us, nationwide.

It was disappointing when they lost the ALDS in '97, and the ALCS in their incredible 116-win season of 2001, but they sure as hell gave the long suffering Seattle fans many, many thrills and memories we shall never forget. Lou's only real flaw as a manager is that he keeps the vets in the bullpen in too long when they falter, and his reluctance to test the pen's rookies. Other than that, he motivates, he inspires, and he is just damn funny as hell. When he comes charging out of the dugout, I can't help but laugh my ass off. The man LOVES baseball like no other manager in sports.

Plus, he helped me win tremendous bets when I was the lone believer in him taking the Reds over the A's in the 1990 World Series. :P

The Cubs are my second favorite NL team after the Dodgers, so this makes me very happy. If management cooperates, he can piece together a contender. What the hell do they have to lose? Cubs fans should be very pleased with this. Tampa Bay's crappy head office and cheapness is what caused him so much frustration and little success there. If the Tribune Company pulls their head out of their asses, he is the right manager at the right time for the Cubs.

Sweet Lou, the only living former Yankee I admire! :D

[Rambis]

3. Couldn't they have done this before the Cubs hired Lou!

bastards!

[ScreamingMeemie]

4. pretty sad...it's not like there are too many decent coaches hanging

around. Perhaps Alan Trammel??? :hi:

[Chan790]

5. That's bullshit.

He didn't deserve it.

His team quit on him the moment they got behind and he's certainly not responsible for Frank Thomas' just up-and-quit after the start of his personal postseason slump and Barry Zito being Zito. (Great pitcher; flaky though and his head is responsible for most of his career losses. He just loses it mentally, he can't pitch from behind and he can't keep his team in a close game. He's in trouble if he bolts for the money and ends up someplace like Boston, Chicago, or New York. The media will make him cry and his mind will make him mediocre.)

This is nearly as dumb as it would have been of Steinbrenner to fire Torre. The Tigers are a great team...I mean they had one bad month. They've certainly proved they can beat anybody.

[Oeditpus Rex]

7. It's baseball

Managers are scapegoats.

[ScreamingMeemie]

8. I think you have dissected that perfectly.

Coming into it the Tigers were underrated. Even the broadcasters bought into the "they're the underdog" mantra...when (except for September) they lead the AL And the NL in wins.

I think the Macha move is a bit hasty.

[tigereye]

10. that's pretty low

a guy gets you to the playoffs and that's his reward? What a sick world we live in....

[Arkham House]

12. The As don't give shit about their managers...

Anyone read "Moneyball"? Billy Beane basically treats his managers like crap, doesn't respect them...Macha is better off elsewhere, he's sure to get another chance...

[Blue_Tires]

14. who else can Oakland get that will do a better job??

[Shakespeare]

16. Ron Washington. n/t

[WannaBeGrumpy]

17. That's so sad.. he seemed really there for the team...

And he seemed like a very happy guy no matter what. I have a lot of respect for him!

[Rabrrrrrr]

24. Because with 50+ teams, firing for no WS in 4 years makes sense

:eyes:

Yep, every manager should get their team to the WS once every four years, or else be fired.

[ScreamingMeemie]

27. Jimmy Leyland better be thanking his lucky stars is all I have to say

about that. It's insane.

[Shakespeare]

35. That's not why he was fired. He was a complete dick to the players.

Check the SF Chronicle's coverage from the last several days--they were on the verge of a team mutiny over Macha's behavior. I hate that it happened, but I understand why it happened. I just hope they move 3rd base coach Ron Washington in as manager--he's incredibly overdue for that position (and universally loved).

[Chan790]

38. One might think that is an inverse problem

The players quit on him.

They, more-so than he, should be leaving Oakland, or minimally, pay for thier mutiny. The last thing the A's need to do is bring in some push-over "player's manager." It sends the wrong message to the players, even if Washington does deserve the position.

[Shakespeare]

41. One would not think that if one had followed the team closely.

The players did NOT quit on him. And if you think they'll bring in a pushover manager, then you don't know Billy Beane very well. No, if you think that, then you don't know Beane at ALL. And Wash, incidentally, is not a pushover. He's just damn good. Several teams interviewed him for their top spot last year, but he ended up staying in Oakland. He deserves to be a manager somewhere, I just hope it's at Oakland.

They didn't "quit on" anybody in the last series. We'd lost a couple of very key players to injury during the final game against Minnesota (Mark Ellis being most significant), with a few more playing hurt. Jimenez was a disaster as a substitute for Ellis, both offensively and defensively, and I can point you to several missed plays by him that might've made the difference in more than one game.

If you really want to get into protracted specifics on Oakland, I'm quite prepared....

[ScreamingMeemie]

44. ...and the entire world underestimated the talent of the Tigers.

That's really it, in a nutshell.

[Shakespeare]

46. I don't get that. They were one of the best teams all year.

They struggled a little the last month, but I don't see how anybody could consider them underdogs, given their performance all year long. :shrug:

[ScreamingMeemie]

47. It irritated the hell out of me.

I am not fond of most of the Fox Sports Network's announcers, radio sports personalities tee me off as well. I think everyone was just gunning for a Yankees/Mets WS. The Tigers led the AL, and the entire ML for most of the season.

[Shakespeare]

50. I can imagine it did!

Detroit, like the A's, gets talked down a lot by most announcers, so I know exactly how you feel. And yeah, I agree that too many of them were all worked up about a potential NY-NY series. I think Detroit is going to completely destroy whichever team you end up playing in the series, by the way. The AL rules, after all. ;-)

[ScreamingMeemie]

43. While I don't know the underlying "gossip" of the situation, Macha

did a damned fine job and I'll be surprised if this team gets anywhere near where they did this year, next year.

[Shakespeare]

48. Well, I guess we'll find out.

I understand why they let him go, and why it had nothing to do with our getting to the playoffs. I thought I'd be upset when they let Macha go (because I had a feeling it was coming), but I'm finding myself feeling rather relieved about it (and I'm pretty emotionally invested in the team, so departures generally get a big reaction out of me; we won't even talk about how upset I was when they traded Eric Byrnes last year--actual tears were shed). Our hitting coach needs to go, too, if you ask me.

Considering the talent we have on our team--really, really great talent--we could have and should have gone farther. We got as far as we did on a lot of heart and spunkiness, for which I credit the players almost exclusively. Probably our biggest problem was leaving guys on base, and it's been a problem for at least the last two years. Until we fix that--and you've gotta look at the coaching there--we won't hit our full potential.

[ScreamingMeemie]

49. I defer to you... I really like Frank Thomas and my heart broke for

him. I have a soft spot for Macha because he reminds me of my grandpa ca. 1979.

Best of luck to you and be proud of the job they did do. They're a heck of a team.

[Shakespeare]

52. You know, that's the same reason I liked Macha.

He just LOOKED like a sweet guy (but apparently was as cold as they come). I think we have an incredible group of guys playing for us, and they deserve a great manager. I just hope Beane finds the right person.

And I LOVE Frank Thomas--at 6'5" and essentially the size of a brick wall, I bet he gives great hugs. I want to hug Frank Thomas. :7

I will be profoundly pissed at Beane if he doesn't sign Thomas again for next year.

[ScreamingMeemie]

53. OMG, CyberTwin! I wanted to reach into the screen and hug him

after game 4. He deserved a better series... And his comment about Magglio being like a little brother and them texting all the time...well that makes him tops in these Magglio fans' books. My daughter is dying to hug Magglio. :hi:


I hate it when they show the other team after the game.

[Shakespeare]

54. I think we need to go to baseball games together.

I'll bring the binoculars.

btw, I love that these guys all like each other--when you're bored sometime, go looking for their myspace pages (I was surprised to learn they almost all have one, and some of them are HILARIOUS). Most of them have each other on their friends lists, which I think is great.

[ScreamingMeemie]

56. If you are ever in town, the game'll be on me...

I'll have to check out the Myspace pages... You would laugh at my daughter at the games. Before last weekend, most people heckled Magglio as overpaid. She would yell (we always sit in right field close to the wall) "Don't listen to them Magglio!" Now everyone is a fan. She made baseball fun for me again, after I swore off of it in 95.

[bridgit]

25. after what we seen, i'd be looking at several changes...

pitching; whomever sent the signals to send the signals to pitch so many balls into 'the sweet spot' i mean it was a disaster

[bmbmd]

45. Welcome to Arlington,

Mr. Macha. You'll look good in blue.

[Zavulon]

55. Why?

Taking the team to the ALCS wasn't enough? They ran into a buzzsaw, period. Even the 2004 Red Sox would have had a problem getting past the Tigers this year.

Who is so demonstrably better that canning Macha was a good idea?