Optics tough for Phils to manage
Connie Mack managed in Philadelphia for 50 seasons. As for everyone else to have tried it, there has been a touch less job security.
The latest contestant is Pete Mackanin, a refreshing fountain of patience through a rebuilding project growing old and tired. Because he deserved it, and because they had no one else in house who could have done any better, the Phillies recently picked up his option for 2018. It was responsible business. It was not a sacred commitment.
So whether it is after Game 162 this season or sometime during the next, Mackanin will do the Wawa bag shuffle once made famous in a news photo of the justfired Charlie Manuel. And whether or not the next manager does any better – Dusty Wathan, anybody? it will not erase what has been a recent collision of horrifying Phillies optics.
Not that Mackanin has had an All-Star team to manage, but a week that included two base-running blunders of banana-peel quality from Odubel Herrera and Pat Neshek’s polite decline to throw another inning after his pitch count reached the unmanageable number of five will be all Matt Klentak needs for reference whenever he makes his first career managerial change. Just as Ryne Sandberg’s failed managerial career is best crystallized by the off-the-hook bullpen phone, Mackanin’s will be smeared by the events of the past week-plus.
Whenever Mackanin is rolled, he should be accompanied by a posse. The Klentak-approved coaching staff has been unable to improve young players or quiet Mackanin’s wails for more professional approaches to rudimentary baseball challenges. The only thing more useless than Bob McClure around Citizens Bank Park is that hunk-ofjunk advertising board blocking the skyline view from the parking lot. Matt Stairs has been no better than Steve Henderson. And Juan Samuel’s stop signs don’t demand universal respect.
At this point in a failed season, there is no value in a coaching-office sand-blast. So Klentak can wait. Besides, he has enough reason already to make it one more Philadelphia manager unable to outlast C-Mack.
To contact Jack McCaffery, email him at jmccaffery@21stcenturymedia.com; follow him on Twitter @JackMcCaffery