The Ol' Ballfield

The Last Manager Post

- Joe Girardi interviewed for the managerial job in Chicago today. Girardi would seem to be a good fit to light a fire under the team with the seventh-highest payroll and third-worst record in baseball. Girardi is a strong candidate for Manager of the Year; no manager has ever been fired the same year he won the award. Bobby Cox left the Blue Jays to become GM of the Braves in 1985, and Davey Johnson resigned from Baltimore in 1997 amid disagreement with management.

- There's too much manager news to keep up with here, but the largest story has been the possible dismissal of beloved Yankee manager Joe Torre. A borderline HOFer as a player, many believe his tenure with the Yankees, which includes six pennants, four championships, and nine straight division titles will secure his ticket to Cooperstown. A record of 1079-699 with New York drew his career record up to 1973-1702. Needless to say, Torre was a sub-.500 manager before his stint with New York. Torre has drawn support from many of his players, including Johnny Damon and Chien-Ming Wang, criticism from Gary Sheffield, and nothing from Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada, or Bernie Williams, who have been on the team with Torre the longest. Carnival has always thought that Joe Torre was a good manager, ably handling both the clubhouse personailities of the Yankees as well as the New York media and pressure from above. 2006, however, seems to have been the exception. The discord in the clubhouse was well documented in the second-half of the season, and Torre made several questionable if not crippling managerial moves in the ALDS against Detroit, including leaving top team slugger Jason Giambi out of the lineup and bringing the team's best relief pitcher of late, Brian Bruney, in for only one batter in the deciding game four. Torre has been at the helm of the Yankees for ten seasons; it may be time for a change. Carnival wouldn't be disappointed either way.

posted by Carnival @ 10/09/2006