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Run, Charlie, run!
by: Shawn Griffin from SportsTerminal.com
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All of you Charlie Manuel lovers out there, get your vicious hate e-mails ready. I am about to go off on your country boy.
This is why I love sports. Some of you out there are going to think I am the biggest moron ever allowed to put his idiotic views on the Internet…others (most, I'm sure) are going to be totally ebullient in your praise of my brilliance.
Let's get on with it.
First off, it really bugs me how the Cleveland media treats Manuel. The talk show hosts, the columnists…Charlie can do no wrong in their eyes. Any criticism is totally off limits. If you do criticize Manuel, it's like you're trying to punch a hole in the bubble boy's plastic tent.
Let's all admit it -- Charlie Manuel instills about as much confidence in this team and us fans as Kent Dorfman does in the guys of the Delta Tau Chi fraternity.
Have you ever seen Charlie during a game? Instead of strategizing, he does one of two things. He either bounces a baseball up and down like an Idiot Savant (bring Charlie to Vegas and watch out) or he has this clueless look on his face that I can only describe as that of a boxer getting up after the fifth knockdown of a title fight.
Many of you out there take Charlie-bashing to mean that we anti-Charlie guys personally don't like him. That's not the case. I heard he's a wonderful guy. That's fine. But I am sick of being a fan of a team with nice guys who don't win a damn thing. Contrast Charlie with Browns coach Butch Davis. This is like having your choice of Camryn Manheim's cans or Jennifer Love Hewitt's. I know baseball and football are completely different sports, but leadership and effective communication are important for all coaches or managers, no matter what sport with which they are involved. When I hear Butch Davis, I have total confidence that he knows what the hell is going on with everything in the organization, from Tim Couch to the night janitor who cleans the offices in Berea. With Charlie, it seems like he has to be reminded of what city he's in at the moment.
Watching Charlie at a press conference is about as embarrassing as a Halle Berry Academy Award-winning acceptance speech. Try for a minute to imagine Charlie at a World Series press conference…can't do it, can you? Trust me, I have tried to do this for about three years now and simply can't. He's a freakin' hitting coach -- that's all he is and all he ever will be. He was never on any team's short list of managerial candidates while he was an assistant under Grover. Is every other organization in baseball stupid or did we uncover a diamond in the rough with Manuel?
Another thing that bothers me is that Manuel is John Hart's guy -- not Mark Shapiro's.
All we have heard about all offseason is how there is a new direction on this team. No more waiting for three run home runs. This team is going to play "small ball."
If that's the case, why not go with a trio of Skinner/Wedge/Mike Brown -- managers and coaches the Tribe's youngsters played for while moving up the organizational ladder, rather than Charlie Manuel? If you HAVE to have Manuel as your manager, he is a much better fit on a team with veteran bashers like Manny, Joey Belle and Gonzo, not a small ball team with youngsters like Bradley, McDonald and Diaz.
I happen to think that most of Shapiro's moves have had sound logic behind them (unlike some of John Hart's later trades -- I mean, how many martinis did he down before trading Giles for Rincon or trading a live body for that a-hole John Rocker?). Speaking of Hart, I truly believe in the Twin Brothers' theory for Hart. The smart, savvy, shrewd, bright John Hart left town around 1997 and was replaced with his dufus twin brother (with the same name). It's like Michael Corleone morphing into Fredo Corleone. Although I totally appreciate the fact that the smart Hart brother helped devise a winning strategy and brought a winning attitude back to the Indians, the dumb Hart really screwed this team up with some of his late 1990s boneheaded moves.
Dolan and Shapiro seem to be hedging their bets with this team. Are they setting up the big boy to be a scapegoat? Probably. It's much easier for Dolan to blame Charlie for a slow start or bad season rather than the owner-mandated reduced payroll. To Dolan and Shapiro -- I say if you have a plan, stick to it, believe in it and live it. Charlie is a part of the past, and it's time to put the past to rest. Make him a roving minor league instructor or something.
I see this team spinning its wheels this season. With the amount of young talent being accumulated on the mound, wheel-spinning at this point is not progress. Fortunately, the AL Central is relatively weak this season -- the Twins and White Sox are by no means unbeatable -- so the Tribe could still win the division. But matching up Charlie in the playoffs with Lou Piniella, Art Howe or Joe Torre isn't exactly an even battle.
Let me close by telling all of you that I hope I am wrong. As an Indians fan since I moved to (and from) Cleveland, I live and die with this stinkin' team. If they win, I'm in a good mood. If they lose, it takes some time to get over it (same thing with the Browns, of course). It's sad, I know. It really is. I only wish I was a casual fan.
I hope I am wrong about Manuel. I hope he leads them to a title. I hope you send me tons of "see, Griffin, you were wrong, Charlie is a great manager and you are a fool. I will never read your crap again" e-mails as we celebrate a World Series victory…I hope they win despite Charlie. With all sincerity, I hope Charlie is the baseball version of Forrest Gump, with the final outcome a huge success despite the obvious flaws.
Although I do believe they are headed in the right direction, I don't think they have the right captain in charge of the ship…but as Forrest Gump says, "Life is like a box of chocolates -- ya n'ver know what you gonna git"…ya know, like, ya know?
See more of Shawn's columns at SportsTerminal.com,
and feel free to e-mail him at shawng@sportsterminal.com!
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