The Firing of Charlie Manuel

You know that the Phillies have never had a team as good or as accomplished as the teams Charlie Manuel coached.

You know that the Phillies have 130 year history of losing, save 10 years or so scattered throughout the last century.

You know he led this team and this city on a genuinely exhilarating thrill ride through the mid and late 2000s.

If you were paying attention, you know he was doing it with a smile on his face that generally matched the ones you’d see from Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard.

You know the Phillies went to back-to-to back World Series. You know about the 5 straight division titles, and of course you know about 2008.

You know that a mixture of injuries, talent evaluation, and mostly a serious drop off in production from players the Phillies counted on to win all those divisions has caused the Phillies to fall on their hardest times in over a decade.

So you know that a scapegoat needed to be found to alleviate some of the pressure the organization was feeling from a lost season.

And now you know that the Phillies’ management decided that scapegoat was Charlie Manuel.

What I want to know is why now? Knowing everything we know about Charlie Manuel, and the reign he has had here, why did David Montgomery and Ruben Amaro Jr decide mid-August was a good time to fire a beloved manager? What did the Phillies have to gain by parting ways with a man who’s been a large part of their tremendous success? Was the timing for this something the front office thought would sit well with the fans? Do they just not care what we think? Did they honestly think the fans thought it was Manuel’s fault that Roy Halladay and Ryan Howard fell off mile high cliffs in the blink of an eye? Did they think we thought it was Manuel messing with Chase Utley’s knees?

I understand the decision to part ways with Manuel. Whether we like it or not, the Phillies are going to have to move on from their aging core of superstars. At this point in Cholly’s career he does not need to stick around and sift through the mess this team is going to be in for the foreseeable future. A mess that was created by gargantuan long-term contracts handed out by someone not named Charlie Manuel.

So I get it. I get the decision to not have Charlie around after this year. But that’s just the thing. This year isn’t f*&^ing over yet! Maybe it would have been a tough next 6 weeks. Scratch that, it’s definitely going to be a tough next 6 weeks on the field, but, man! I don’t even know how to explain it but I’ll try.

Everyone in that organization that makes decisions above Charlie Manuel’s head owes him a heaping pile of gratitude for the job he did and the position he’s helped them get to. By firing him mid-season it was like they failed to recognize this fact. Instead of going out on his own terms the Phillies showed him the door. It frustrates me to think that a manager with the personality, likability, and unparalleled success that Manuel had got discarded like yesterday’s news. He did not deserve it.

We could compare this situation to one we just went through with Andy Reid except it wouldn’t quite be a fair comparison for several reasons. First of all, Manuel won a title. Second of all, by the end of the 2012 season you’d be hard pressed to find someone who had something decent to say about Andy Reid. Lastly, Jeffrey Lurie had some class and let his guy finish the season even if it was a bad one. 


I just can’t stop shaking my head at the timing of this departure.


There’s a few things I’ll always remember about Charlie Manuel.

He was just like Tom Selleck in Mr. Baseball.

He talked quite a bit like Foghorn Leghorn.

He was always smiling and joking around. God, I miss the days when he’d sit with his forearms perched on top of the dugout fence chuckling away and talking with Jimmy. He always was talking to Jimmy.

He loves to hit. He really, really, loves to hit and the Phillies did it better than any one else when he was here.

And of course, he loved that dent in the back of his hat.

One thing is for sure, I will miss Charlie Manuel.