October heat hits managers
Decisions that don’t work out in playoffs have long shelf life.
Yankees manager Joe Girardi uttered the words the other day many Cubs fans longed to hear: “I screwed up.”
But those Cubs fans didn’t want to hear it from Girardi, who was admitting a mistake in judgment after being vilified in New York for a decision not to ask for a replay review on a missed call that affected the outcome of the Yankees’ Game 2 loss in the American League Division Series.
They wanted Joe Maddon to issue his mea culpa for having Carl Edwards Jr. pitch to Bryce Harper with a base open in the eighth inning of Game 2 of the National League Division Series, or for pulling Jose Quintana for Pedro Strop to face Ryan Zimmerman in the sixth inning of Game 3 on Monday.
Maddon explained his reasoning, of course, but it doesn’t really matter what he said.
This is what happens in October, when the stakes are higher and the Twitter and talk-radio outrage is on full blast. No matter what move a manager makes in the postseason, he’s the worst manager in history if it doesn’t work out.
Girardi was booed during pregame introductions at Yankee Stadium before Game 3. Maddon was booed vociferously Monday when he came out to get Quintana. Dusty Baker has been booed almost his entire managerial career.
Before rain caused the postponement of Game 4 of the NLDS on Tuesday, Baker addressed the new normal, one day after he let Oliver Perez pitch to Anthony Rizzo with first base open in the eighth inning of Game 2. Rizzo dumped a bloop single between three players for the go-ahead hit. Baker was deemed an idiot while Rizzo screamed out for “respect,” even though he was fortunate the ball dropped in.
“The reality of it is ... that it’s only correct if it works,” Baker said. “But that’s not how it really is. And so you know, you can’t control the outcome; all you can do is try to put people in a position to succeed.
“As far as the scrutiny and as far as social media and this and that, everything, I don’t read it . ... I have to really stress that to my mom and my wife, you know, because they read everything and I don’t read anything.”
Maybe that means Baker won’t read all the stories and tweets telling him what a ridiculous decision it is to start Tanner Roark in Game 4 instead of replacing him with Stephen Strasburg, even as USA Today reported Strasburg declined to start. No one in baseball reads anything, they always say, yet they always seem to know what’s being written about them.
Girardi, Baker and Maddon are three of the most successful managers in the game, but no one is immune from the attack of the Twitter trolls this time of year.
Baker was criticized constantly as manager of the Cubs, and continues to get booed at Wrigley Field. Maddon is the first Cubs manager to win a World Series since 1908, but spent a lot of time last winter being asked to defend his decisions on using Aroldis Chapman in Games 6 and 7 of the World Series, and for removing Kyle Hendricks in the fifth inning of Game 7. Hendricks still was hearing about it in spring training when he warmed up for his first Cactus League outing.
“They were yelling it still,” Hendricks said. “It still hasn’t stopped. I’m like, ‘We’re on the next year, right?’ They’re still (saying): ‘Why did (Maddon) take you out?’ ... I don’t get it.”
Some managerial decisions are deemed so egregious the teams no longer can live with the results. When he was the Red Sox’s general manager, Epstein fired Grady Little after he left Pedro Martinez in during the eighth inning of Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS and watched the move blow up in his face.
Criticism doesn’t seem to bother Maddon and he said bar room conversations are good for the game. Baker said he has learned to ignore it. “(Even if ) you know you did the right thing, it might not have turned out right,” he said.