A-P "So You Think You're A Sportswriter" Thread

[metirish]

Klapisch has been talking to friends of Manny's friends, or something like that.

]By BOB KLAPISCH SPORTS COLUMNIST Can you envision Manny Ramirez, the American League's most dangerous, late-inning threat from the right side, wearing pinstripes in 2006? None other than Ramirez himself has. The Red Sox' left fielder told friends in the final weeks of the regular season he would accept, if not welcome, a trade to either New York team - an intriguing opening in the wake of Alex Rodriguez's collapse in the AL Division Series. The Yankees have a long winter ahead, full of critical decisions about their general manager, center fielder and a new setup man for Mariano Rivera. Ramirez's name has never been seriously considered until now, but that may change after another early exit from the playoffs and Rodriguez's .133 average against the Angels. According to one American League source, the Red Sox are leaning toward one scenario where they'll sign all their free agents, most notably Johnny Damon, but would trade Ramirez for the right return package. The Yankees obviously would need to include a third team to pull off such a monster swap - and don't underestimate the Mets' willingness to do anything to pair Ramirez with GM Omar Minaya, after nearly acquiring the slugger at the July 31 trade deadline. But George Steinbrenner will be just as motivated to find more potent weapons than Bernie Williams (.211 in the ALDS) even Hideki Matsui (who hit .200 and made the final out in Game 5 with the tying run on base). Ramirez is "definitely ready to come to New York," said the friend, who dined with the left fielder during the Sox' road series against the Yankees. "He likes the Yankees, the Mets, either one, he just wants to be here." Of course, the Yankees can't begin restructuring until they have a GM in place, and that won't happen until Cashman decides whether to accept a 20 percent pay raise and ownership equity, an offer that's been on the table since July. George Steinbrenner made it clear he wants Cashman back in 2006, but that was three months ago. Yankee sources say The Boss is now just as inclined to name Tampa-based VP Damon Oppenheimer as Cashman's replacement if talks stall beyond the expiration-date on the GM's contract, Oct. 31. No matter who choreographs the Yankees' off-season, though, there are certain constants that'll remain untouched: Alex Rodriguez will be back (at $20 million a year, where could he go?), Derek Jeter stays put as the team's most marketable commodity and Gary Sheffield will finish out the last year of a three-year pact he personally negotiated with Steinbrenner. And the ageless Mariano Rivera will rescue the bullpen once again. There's a long list of potential free agents, including Williams, Matsui and Tom Gordon. The Yankees want Matsui, unless the long-shot scenario of Ramirez coming to the Bronx becomes a reality, in which case he's gone. It's hard to envision Bernie coming back, however, unless he's ready to take a massive pay cut and be content with 250 at-bats a year. And with free agent B.J. Ryan looming as Rivera's next setup man, Gordon likely has thrown his final pitch as a Yankee. Some other free agency issues likely will resolve themselves, including the near-certain retirement of Al Leiter and Tino Martinez. The Yankees must determine whether Jason Giambi is their everyday first baseman, or whether he's better suited as a designated hitter. And if Bernie is gone, or at least in deep background mode, it's not impossible to think of the Marlins' Juan Pierre succeeding him. Damon, of course, will be available, and while some executives consider it an air-tight guarantee the Sox will re-sign him, the Yankees may actually have a better chance than anyone thinks. One person close to the center fielder said, "The Sox blew their chance to sign Johnny earlier this year" when he was ready to accept a four-year, $30 million offer - practically the same deal he signed in 2001. Sox ownership ultimately balked, setting the stage for agent Scott Boras to demand a six or seven year deal that'll increase Damon's yearly salary to more than $12 million per. Said one member of Damon's entourage: "It's an even playing field now. Johnny's going to see what's out there." As for pitching, the Yankees are more limited than they want to admit, considering they owe Carl Pavano three more years at $9 million per and are into Jaret Wright for another two seasons. And besides, they have no real incentive to trade Aaron Small, Shawn Chacon or Chien-Ming Wang. Question is, though: Who'll tutor them? Pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre all but announced his retirement from the Yankees this past week, hinting he'll take a similar role with the Mariners. That'll make it possible for the Yankees to again mull approaching the Braves' Leo Mazzone, who, through third parties, heard of the Bombers' interest in him over the summer. Mazzone and the Braves hotly denied the Yankees ever made contact. Technically, that was true; there was never any one-on-one conversation between the legendary coach and any member of the Yankees' front office. But according to one person familiar with the Bombers' interest in Mazzone, they'd be willing to do "whatever it takes" if he decides he's ready to leave Atlanta. E-mail: klapisch@northjersey.com

[Guest Edgy DC]

Yeah, banish Matsui because he made the final out. Way to make a decision based on a sample size of one.

Also, how is A-Rod immoveable at $20 million, but this whole article is to speculate on the acquisition of Manny Ramirez, who makes $22 million?

Mike Mussina joins Derek Jeter on the five-and-ten train this season.

[metirish]

Mike Lupica loves to hammer the MFY's, in the Daily News today he had two columns killing them, in this one he sees a bright future for the Mets where they take back the city and a bad future for the MFY's, and once again he evokes the 80's when the Mets owned NYC...

]George sees red, next is blue & orange George Steinbrenner said yesterday through his flack Howard Rubenstein that the Yankees let their fans down. Not as much as they let Steinbrenner himself down. It is why he has a perfect right to take a good look at both his general manager and his manager now, before he decides whether or not to keep them. Because as the Yankees move forward, it is no longer just the teams that keep taking October from them, all these teams with smaller payrolls, that are a problem for Steinbrenner. They're not the only ones coming hard after him now. So are the Mets. I keep hearing that Steinbrenner wants Brian Cashman back. But it won't entirely be the owner's call on that one, since Cashman's contract expires on the last day of October, by which time somebody other than Steinbrenner's $210.9 million Yankees will have won the World Series. Cashman is the best Steinbrenner has in his front office, a better baseball guy, by a lot, than any of the Tampa weasels. Has he made mistakes? You bet. So did Theo Epstein this season in Boston. Epstein wanted Edgar Renteria instead of Orlando Cabrera and then nearly traded away Manny Ramirez of Washington Heights. They all make mistakes. It doesn't change that Cashman is smart, honest, tireless, loyal, a Yankee. He also works for an owner who has spent $1 billion over the past five years on ballplayers who couldn't win the World Series, and has a right to be crankier than Randy Johnson about this kind of lousy finish. Steinbrenner gets to look at his whole operation now. It includes Joe Torre, who in so many ways is what Steinbrenner still aspires to be, which means the biggest guy in town. It doesn't mean he has a job for life. I am on the record about Torre, believing he is the top top-manager in sports, just because of everything he brings to the job of working for this owner, in this city. And once you say that, how can you say that George Steinbrenner isn't even allowed to think about bringing Lou Piniella back to the Stadium? How can you tell an owner - even an owner as increasingly weird as this one - that he can't think about a new voice in the Yankee clubhouse and a new attitude about things? You can't. Torre still finishes first every year, and twice he has made the World Series in the last five. He just hasn't won any. And gets bounced in the first round again, second time in four seasons to the Angels, the same way Bobby Cox just got bounced. Everybody says Steinbrenner would never fire Torre and have to pay him $13 million. Really? So apparently Steinbrenner can spend an average of $200 million over five years on baseball players but he's going to let the equivalent of the last year of Gary Sheffield's contract stop him from making a move with his manager? Steinbrenner will never have to worry about money. He makes money without even trying. Now he gets ready to build a new stadium and make more. The Mets gets ready to do the same thing. In addition, they are ready to start up their own network, which Steinbrenner knows is the equivalent of printing your own money. The Mets got to third place this year without a first baseman, a second baseman, and with set-up men erratic enough to have pitched for Torre. They didn't get much out of the outgoing Mike Piazza. They could have quit in the end and didn't. They have an aggressive general manager in Omar Minaya, they have a manager, Willie Randolph, who is going to be around a long time. The Mets are coming on now. The idea that this is always going to be a Yankee town ignores the way things were 20 years ago, when it was the Mets who were on top and were the hottest ticket going. One of these days, and it might be as soon as next season, the Mets are going to be the best baseball team in town. You think Minaya is going to stop with just Pedro Martinez and Carlos Beltran? Minaya, a kid from the neighborhood, a great New York story, has a stomach for this kind of fight the way the people running the Red Sox do. Steinbrenner had the run of the town for a long time. He just broke records in attendance. That's not how he keeps score. It wasn't so long ago that his Yankees won the World Series every year. Now they lose in the first round. The business plan is working fine. Just not the baseball plan. Forget about the first round. When does that plan lose New York?

[Guest rpackrat]

Fun column, but Lupica is wrong on a couple of points about the Mets:

]The Mets got to third place this year without a first baseman, a second baseman, and with set-up men erratic enough to have pitched for Torre. They didn't get much out of the outgoing Mike Piazza.

The point about the Mets' bullpen has already been thoroughly debunked on this board. As for Piazza, the Mets "didn't get much out of him" only if you compare him to Piazza at his peak. If you compare him to the universe of major league catchers last season, he did just fine, thank you.

[Guest 86-Dreamer]

Funny how seemingly all writers now repeat the "$1 billion over last 5 years" as if it were true

[Willets Point]

A year ago this week, the Boston Globe's crappiest sportswriter Dan Shaugnessy penned the following paragraph:

" So there. For the 86th consecutive autumn, the Red Sox are not going to win the World Series. No baseball team in history has recovered from a 3-0 deficit and this most-promising Sox season in 18 years could be officially over tonight. Mercy."

He of course was the first one to jump back on the bandwagon when the Sox did win.

[Willets Point]

Dan Shaugnessy who built his entire career by promoting 'the curse of the Bambino' writes on why curses don't matter.

[metirish]

Ken Davidoff goes very low on Armando Benitez....did he really have to ruin a fun read with that line?

]And when Giants manager Felipe Alou grabs his throat and gasps for air, well, come on down, Armando Benitez!

[url=http://www.newsday.com/sports/columnists/ny-spken244482851oct24,0,414033.column?coll=ny-sports-columnists]Davidoff Goes Low on Benitez[/url]

[metirish]

The Onion's 05 season review....funny stuff.

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/42110

[Guest Edgy DC]

Here's a two-handed head-clutcher from The Long Beach Press-Telegram

]McCourts can still make amends Doug Krikorian Staff columnist So, Paul De(lete)Podesta indeed has been deleted from Frankie & Jamie McCourt's Los Angeles Dodger Fantasy Camp, where adults give comedic impersonations of major league owners, hire and fire people with a macabre glee and give dopey answers during interviews that one would expect to hear from privately educated parrots. The media furor inspired by Mr. DePodesta's detachment has me slightly bewildered, since, after all, the defining hallmark of the McCourts' two-season reign of terror has been the unending ruthlessness they've displayed toward their employees, a good portion of whom they have summarily fired. It is, of course, a natural phenomenon that personnel changes are inevitable when a new owner takes over a business, but the McCourts have taken this to an obscene extreme. They not only have gotten rid of a lot of people left over from the Peter O'Malley-Fox regimes, but also have gotten rid of a lot of people they themselves enlisted for work. Thus the discarding of Mr. Podesta, like that of Jim Tracy and Ross Porter and Lon Rosen and Dan Evans and Bob Graziano and Gary Miereanu and John Olguin and so many others, ranks on the surprise meter right there with darkness appearing after the sun sets, politicians spewing mindless cliches and ol' Dodger Blue Himself, Tom Lasorda, gallantly defending the honor of the McCourts. It long has been a hallowed ritual in baseball for owners to get rid of their managers or general managers or both after lousy seasons to demonstrate to their season-ticket holders that they're doing something dramatic to resolve their teams' problems. While the L.A. Angels' Arte Moreno has been lauded for operating a stable franchise since assuming control of the Angels a couple of seasons ago, I doubt either his manager, Mike Scioscia, or his GM, Bill Stoneman, would be feeling that secure these moments had the Angels wound up 71-91 this summer, as the Dodgers did. While so many other uncouplings in the Dodger organization defy logic, the McCourts certainly can't be faulted for booting Mr. DePodesta out of Chavez Ravine. There is indisputable evidence that Mr. DePodesta richly deserved his fate with that five-year, $55 million gift to the notoriously brittle J.D. Drew being perhaps the most egregious of his many blunders. He was a pompous fellow with an Ivy League degree who thought his computer could overcome his notable lack of baseball knowledge and he turned out to be a scandalous disaster for the Dodgers. At least the McCourts came to their senses, and didn't compound the folly of hiring Mr. DePodesta by stubbornly allowing him to remain at his station to further pollute the team with his inane decisions. The word circulating among Dodger insiders is that Frank McCourt has been listening attentively to Lasorda, which, actually, is a good thing since Lasorda has a reservoir of baseball wisdom and should be listened to except when it comes to his explanation for trading Paul Konerko for reliever Jeff Shaw during his brief tenure as Dodger GM. But McCourt should put in ear plugs when Lasorda starts discussing the virtues of one of his former players, Bobby Valentine, who's been managing in Japan and should remain in the Far East if the Dodgers ever are to have peace and tranquillity and goodwill on earth. If McCourt and his wife want to get a slightly different view of Valentine than the one that's being portrayed by Lasorda, they should seek out Valentine's former boss with the New York Mets, Steve Phillips, who turned out to be a victim of Valentine's well-known manipulative, behind-the-scenes antics and who openly has blamed Valentine for his ouster from the team. As you might recall, Valentine's shenanigans with the Mets finally caught up to him and he eventually was thrown out of New York. Valentine is not exactly one of your beloved figures in baseball and is certainly not the type of individual a team perceived as a chaotic mess needs to lead it out of the abyss. Terry Collins, who supposedly was Mr. DePodesta's top pick to succeed Tracy, is a beacon of calm restraint compared to Valentine, a combustible guy who was despised by so many of his players. If the McCourts are persuaded by Lasorda to give Valentine the job, you can be sure Lasorda will be seriously considered as Valentine's bench coach, a position which Lasorda dearly covets. If Lasorda were to get it, it would put him back in the spotlight, which would be a rare bit of positive public relations for the Dodgers although it would come with unsettling baggage the presence of Valentine. Lasorda's choice as GM is a longtime friend, Pat Gillick, a proven commodity

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

What a fresh steamy loaf.

[Guest Edgy DC]

How about Valentine somehow engineering Phillips' phiring?

He pre-deceased Phillips, you nut.

[Guest Mark Healey]

Edgy DC wrote: How about Valentine somehow engineering Phillips' phiring? He pre-deceased Phillips, you nut.

That's been a common media theme ever since it happened.

Always forgotten is the fact that Valentine and MacIllvane had a great relationship (he hired Bobby V to work at Norfolk because he hated Dallas Green) and that Wilpons wanted Joe Mac to attend all of the kitchen cabinet meetings, and he was always scouting players instead.

Now, the Wilpons did ask Bobby for feedback on SP, because they had worked together before, but to say Bobby "hired" SP is nonsense.

[Frayed Knot]

]There is indisputable evidence that Mr. DePodesta richly deserved his fate with that five-year, $55 million gift to the notoriously brittle J.D. Drew being perhaps the most egregious of his many blunders.

Y'know, I know it's real popular to say that you "knew" that JD Drew was an injury waiting to happen and that it becomes real easy to crow when the facts seem to fit the predetermined story and all. Except that Drew's problem coming into the season was with a knee and he wound up missing the back half of the season with a broken wrist as the result of being hit with a pitch. There's nothing predetermined about that and the 'I-told-ya-so' crowd needs to pipe down here.

]He was a pompous fellow with an Ivy League degree who thought his computer could overcome his notable lack of baseball knowledge and he turned out to be a scandalous disaster for the Dodgers.

That sentence is beyond obnoxious.

[metirish]

I find it interesting that McCourt might be interested in Epstein, isn't DePodesta cut from the same cloth?

]But McCourt should put in ear plugs when Lasorda starts discussing the virtues of one of his former players, Bobby Valentine, who's been managing in Japan and should remain in the Far East if the Dodgers ever are to have peace and tranquillity and goodwill on earth.

well if you want a great manager then you go for Bobby...and I heard tonight that McCourt will meet Bobby later this week.

[Guest Mark Healey]

Frayed Knot wrote: ]There is indisputable evidence that Mr. DePodesta richly deserved his fate with that five-year, $55 million gift to the notoriously brittle J.D. Drew being perhaps the most egregious of his many blunders. Y'know, I know it's real popular to say that you "knew" that JD Drew was an injury waiting to happen and that it becomes real easy to crow when the facts seem to fit the predetermined story and all. Except that Drew's problem coming into the season was with a knee and he wound up missing the back half of the season with a broken wrist as the result of being hit with a pitch. There's nothing predetermined about that and the 'I-told-ya-so' crowd needs to pipe down here. ]He was a pompous fellow with an Ivy League degree who thought his computer could overcome his notable lack of baseball knowledge and he turned out to be a scandalous disaster for the Dodgers. That sentence is beyond obnoxious.

A.) Most observers, including myself, were shocked when the Dodgers gace Drew that contract. The guy had been hurt almost every year of his career. That said, I thought signing Lowe was a great move.

B.) I've been guilty of this kind of bitterness in my columns from time to time, so it's hard to kill the guy. Guys like DePo bring it out of you.

The Beane acolytes are very cocksure, and the old school guys are equally dismissive. Both hate ther media, so it's funny when they take sides. I include myself in this, of course.

As someone on this board has said, I think it was Edgy, it's a unending argument.

[metsmarathon]

i can always appreciate a little good old-fashioned anti-intellectualism!

[Frayed Knot]

]A.) Most observers, including myself, were shocked when the Dodgers gace Drew that contract. The guy had been hurt almost every year of his career.

No doubt that the Drew signing was risky, but it's not like THIS injury was foretold, nor did his previous hurts make this one more likely.
If I told you not to drive the car because the tires are bald it's not like I retain the right to say 'I told ya so' when you get plowed into by a semi while sitting at a light. The pre-existing problem didn't cause wreck nor even make YOU more likely than the guy next to you to be the car on the business end of that truck grill.

]B.) I've been guilty of this kind of bitterness in my columns from time to time, so it's hard to kill the guy. Guys like DePo bring it out of you.

I'd think that sticking to knocking guys for what they actually do would be better than deciding that picking on the nerds is as fun and easy now as it was during high school ... but that's just me.

[Guest Edgy DC]

The column, if you read, claims that Valentine engineered Phillips firing (or at least it uncontestably reports that Phillips maintains this), not that V engineered his hiring.

[Guest Edgy DC]

]The Beane acolytes are very cocksure, and the old school guys are equally dismissive. Both hate ther media, so it's funny when they take sides. I include myself in this, of course.

Say what you want about yourself, but the rest of this is way overbroad.

The stature of Beane was raised to great heights, and his alleged acolytes greately informed about him, by a book --- in other words, by a piece of media.

[Guest Mark Healey]

] ]B.) I've been guilty of this kind of bitterness in my columns from time to time, so it's hard to kill the guy. Guys like DePo bring it out of you. I'd think that sticking to knocking guys for what they actually do would be better than deciding that picking on the nerds is as fun and easy now as it was during high school ... but that's just me.

I'm only saying that I've been guilty of it myself, so killing this guy seems hypocritical. However, I agree with your first point. As to the second point, I've been on both sides of that coin, but media guys get that kind of treatment by the players as well. Don't know this fellow, so I can't really comment.

[Guest Mark Healey]

Edgy DC wrote: The column, if you read, claims that Valentine engineered Phillips firing (or at least it uncontestably reports that Phillips maintains this), not that V engineered his hiring.

Sorry, I misread your post...and only skimmed the column for the specific comments on DePo. Upon reading it again, this guy is a complete boob.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Well, that's what I get for spelling "phiring" so creatively.

[Guest Mark Healey]

I hate to revisit this, but after Edgy pointed out that I hadn't read this column properly, I decided to give it a real good read...and yikes.

]So, Paul De(lete)Podesta indeed has been deleted from Frankie & Jamie McCourt's Los Angeles Dodger Fantasy Camp, where adults give comedic impersonations of major league owners, hire and fire people with a macabre glee and give dopey answers during interviews that one would expect to hear from privately educated parrots.

OOoookay..so he doesn't like the McCourts. We get it.

]The media furor inspired by Mr. DePodesta's detachment has me slightly bewildered, since, after all, the defining hallmark of the McCourts' two-season reign of terror has been the unending ruthlessness they've displayed toward their employees, a good portion of whom they have summarily fired.

What media furor? Most people were more upset by the Tracy firing, and to be fair, outside of last season, the Dodgers have been an underachieving bunch.

]It is, of course, a natural phenomenon that personnel changes are inevitable when a new owner takes over a business, but the McCourts have taken this to an obscene extreme. They not only have gotten rid of a lot of people left over from the Peter O'Malley-Fox regimes, but also have gotten rid of a lot of people they themselves enlisted for work. Thus the discarding of Mr. Podesta, like that of Jim Tracy and Ross Porter and Lon Rosen and Dan Evans and Bob Graziano and Gary Miereanu and John Olguin and so many others, ranks on the surprise meter right there with darkness appearing after the sun sets, politicians spewing mindless cliches and ol' Dodger Blue Himself, Tom Lasorda, gallantly defending the honor of the McCourts.

Didn't most of these fellows make calls like long-term contracts for Brown and Driefort, while passing on Piazza and Sheffield?

]It long has been a hallowed ritual in baseball for owners to get rid of their managers or general managers or both after lousy seasons to demonstrate to their season-ticket holders that they're doing something dramatic to resolve their teams' problems. While the L.A. Angels' Arte Moreno has been lauded for operating a stable franchise since assuming control of the Angels a couple of seasons ago, I doubt either his manager, Mike Scioscia, or his GM, Bill Stoneman, would be feeling that secure these moments had the Angels wound up 71-91 this summer, as the Dodgers did.

Well, duh. What's his point? Celebrate losing!?! Haven't the Angels been a AL West and playoff contender since Stoneman and Sciocia have been around?

]While so many other uncouplings in the Dodger organization defy logic, the McCourts certainly can't be faulted for booting Mr. DePodesta out of Chavez Ravine. There is indisputable evidence that Mr. DePodesta richly deserved his fate with that five-year, $55 million gift to the notoriously brittle J.D. Drew being perhaps the most egregious of his many blunders. He was a pompous fellow with an Ivy League degree who thought his computer could overcome his notable lack of baseball knowledge and he turned out to be a scandalous disaster for the Dodgers.

I didn't like the Drew signing as I said before, but he still has four years left on the deal...should Omar be fired for Carlos Beltran's bad year? The other stuff I've already addressed.

]At least the McCourts came to their senses, and didn't compound the folly of hiring Mr. DePodesta by stubbornly allowing him to remain at his station to further pollute the team with his inane decisions. The word circulating among Dodger insiders is that Frank McCourt has been listening attentively to Lasorda, which, actually, is a good thing since Lasorda has a reservoir of baseball wisdom and should be listened to except when it comes to his explanation for trading Paul Konerko for reliever Jeff Shaw during his brief tenure as Dodger GM.

This is ridiculous. Jeff Shaw was an All-Star closer in 1998 and Konerko was a nice prospect. Lasorda also pushed the Delino DeShields-Pedro deal, does that make him an idiot?

]But McCourt should put in ear plugs when Lasorda starts discussing the virtues of one of his former players, Bobby Valentine, who's been managing in Japan and should remain in the Far East if the Dodgers ever are to have peace and tranquillity and goodwill on earth. If McCourt and his wife want to get a slightly different view of Valentine than the one that's being portrayed by Lasorda, they should seek out Valentine's former boss with the New York Mets, Steve Phillips, who turned out to be a victim of Valentine's well-known manipulative, behind-the-scenes antics and who openly has blamed Valentine for his ouster from the team.

Laughable. It's the other way around, dimwit. How in God's name had Bobby gotten SP fired after he himself was fired?!?

]As you might recall, Valentine's shenanigans with the Mets finally caught up to him and he eventually was thrown out of New York. Valentine is not exactly one of your beloved figures in baseball and is certainly not the type of individual a team perceived as a chaotic mess needs to lead it out of the abyss.

Yeah, Bobby V is a loser. :roll:

]Terry Collins, who supposedly was Mr. DePodesta's top pick to succeed Tracy, is a beacon of calm restraint compared to Valentine, a combustible guy who was despised by so many of his players. If the McCourts are persuaded by Lasorda to give Valentine the job, you can be sure Lasorda will be seriously considered as Valentine's bench coach, a position which Lasorda dearly covets. If Lasorda were to get it, it would put him back in the spotlight, which would be a rare bit of positive public relations for the Dodgers although it would come with unsettling baggage the presence of Valentine.

Again..idiocy.

]Lasorda's choice as GM is a longtime friend, Pat Gillick, a proven commodity

Actually, Orel Hershiser is Lasorda's choice for GM, but I guess it helps to actually talk to the person you're trashing in your article.

To quote Dickshot...a steamy loaf.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Help me out. Does this picture depict

a) certainly not the type of individual a team perceived as a chaotic mess needs to lead it out of the abyss?

b) a figure who denies peace and tranquillity and goodwill on earth?

c) acombustible guy despised by so many of his players?

d) All of the above?

[Guest Mark Healey]

Edgy DC wrote: Help me out. Does this picture depict a) certainly not the type of individual a team perceived as a chaotic mess needs to lead it out of the abyss? b) a figure who denies peace and tranquillity and goodwill on earth? c) acombustible guy despised by so many of his players? d) All of the above?

Looks like a guy laughing his ass off...actually I have it on good authority that Bobby V was told that people have to pay to read SP's ESPN Insider articles right before this picture was taken...

:twisted:

[Guest Edgy DC]

Word Freak, show them how it's done.

Managing baseball becomes a more complex job Monday, November 07, 2005 By Stefan Fatsis and Jon Weinbach, The Wall Street Journal (Actually carried in The Pittsburgh Post Gazette ____________________________ Why did Theo quit? That question has reverberated through the baseball world since Theo Epstein, the wunderkind general manager of the Boston Red Sox, declined a multimillion-dollar contract offer and resigned last week, just a year after helping the team win its first championship since 1918. In media reports and cyberspace chatter, Mr. Epstein's departure has been linked to a power struggle in Red Sox upper management. The 31-year-old Boston native, an icon in his hometown, was expected to stay forever. But his dramatic departure played out against a basic backdrop: The role of the Major League Baseball general manager is changing. As the sport's GMs gather in Indian Wells, Calif., today for their weeklong annual meeting, a new generation of young executives is taking over -- or, in some cases, already leaving -- key positions in team front offices. Among the fresh faces: two 28-year-olds with fewer than seven seasons of baseball experience between them. Among the missing: in addition to Mr. Epstein, the recently fired 32-year-old GM of the Los Angeles Dodgers. The youth movement mirrors a shift in the nature of running a big-league baseball team. The general manager used to be relatively anonymous, was often a former player and held near-total control over baseball operations. Now, as media scrutiny has increased and owners are forced to focus more than ever on the game's high financial stakes, the job has morphed into a corporate-executive position that has to report up the line. "A general manager having complete autonomy is a thing of the past," player agent Scott Boras says. Many of the job's core activities -- fielding trade offers, keeping tabs on prospects, negotiating contracts -- haven't changed. But today's general managers work in a baseball landscape that is vastly more complex than even a decade ago. Consider: When the Dodgers won the World Series in 1988, they had about 15 baseball-operations staff members in the team's main office. This season, the Red Sox had nearly double that, including eight "player development consultants" and the famed statistics guru Bill James. Likewise, as player salaries have soared -- the average payroll on the 30 big-league teams in 2005 was about $70 million -- the deadlines on baseball's year-round business calendar have taken on greater importance. GMs are under constant pressure to make personnel decisions that can affect a team's financial flexibility for years. They must seek players in Europe, Asia and South America, and play poker with a bevy of shrewd agents. All the while, their moves are dissected by ESPN, sports-radio hosts, newspaper columnists and thousands of online fanatics. Mr. Epstein has complained privately that he spent a quarter of his time in Boston on media issues. "There used to be a press conference held quarterly or someone inquiring two or three times a season," says Atlanta Braves general manager John Schuerholz, who at 65 years old is the dean of big-league GMs. The media crush, he says, "is far more challenging even for the most intellectually competent among us, especially the young among us who have less experience." Yet the demands and pace of the GM's job often require the energy of a 20-something, a reality that has fueled the rapid rise of junior executives like Mr. Epstein. Steve Phillips was named general manager of the New York Mets in 1997 at age 34. His six seasons on the job included a daily news conference and death threats. "I joke that it's like dog years, so I was a GM for 42 years," says Mr. Phillips, now an ESPN analyst. "I feel like I'm still recovering." The influx of young executives is often portrayed as a clash between Ivy League-educated, laptop-wielding statistics mavens and radar-gun-toting, tobacco-juice-spitting baseball lifers. That's partly true. But the real trouble may reflect a basic disadvantage of youth: a lack of management experience. Baseball GMs increasingly are relied on to communicate with large staffs and to negotiate prickly political situations involving players, coaches, agents, scouts and even bickering owners. They also have to manage much older employees, often without the playing, coaching or scouting credentials considered so valuable in the sport. "You have to earn the trust of a lot of people, and that doesn't come overnight," says Fred Claire, who worked for the Dodgers for 30 years and was the team's GM from 1987 to 1998. The lack of management experience appears to have contributed to the firing late last month of 32-year-old Paul DePodesta as general manager of the Dodgers after just two seasons on the job. Mr. DePodesta majored in economics at Harvard and worked under acclaimed Oakland Athletics GM Billy Beane (playing a supporting role in Michael Lewis's bestselling book "Moneyball"). While earning respect for his ability to blend traditional talent scouting with modern statistics-oriented research -- and while leading the Dodgers last year to their first playoff win since 1988 -- Mr. DePodesta had never run a team department at any level before taking over the club. As a result, baseball executives say, he struggled with some traditional management tasks, such as communicating with underlings and managing public-relations crises. For example, Mr. DePodesta was criticized in the local media for failing to call a long-time Dodgers coach regarding his job status. The coach took a position with the archrival San Francisco Giants. After the team slumped to discord-laden 71-91 record, the GM was fired by club owner Frank McCourt. Mr. DePodesta couldn't be reached for comment. Most big-league GMs are still closer to middle age than drinking age. Even before the departures of Messrs. Epstein and DePodesta, the average age of general managers was 45. But the youth movement is likely to continue. Today's new hires grew up mimicking team executives in fantasy-sports games, learning about franchise minutiae on TV and studying exhaustive statistical breakdowns on the Internet. "Young guys are able to access information about being a GM from the time they can turn on a computer at age 5, and by the time they're 15 can know everything about what GMs have done," Mr. Schuerholz says. "At 25, they're more prepared informationally and intellectually than the GMs when I began were at 35." Another advantage: Young, well-educated baseball executives might relate better than former players or scouts to financially savvy team owners. "They have a decisive advantage in an interview," says Mr. Boras, the agent. "They speak the language of CEO-dom. They quantify the game into a measurement that's most understandable by ownership: a paper trail." Mr. Schuerholz spent a quarter-century working his way up to a general manager job. By contrast, the new GM of the Texas Rangers, 28-year-old Jon Daniels, has just five seasons of experience. The new principal owner of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Stuart Sternberg, ditched the GM title completely. He installed 28-year-old Andrew Friedman, less than two years removed from Wall Street, as executive vice president of baseball operations and last week hired 55-year-old baseball veteran Gerry Hunsicker to back him up. "It's not a one-person job," Mr. Sternberg says. Mr. Epstein's career began 13 years ago as an intern with the Baltimore Orioles. He was noticed there by senior club executive Larry Lucchino, a former Washington attorney. Mr. Lucchino hired him to work for the San Diego Padres, advised him to attend law school and was instrumental in promoting the former Yale Daily News sports editor to GM of the Red Sox in 2002. At a news conference last week, Mr. Epstein cited "complexities" in his relationship with Mr. Lucchino, president and part owner of the team, but he didn't blame them for his resignation. "In the end, it just wasn't the right fit," he said. Mr. Lucchino didn't return a request for comment. In an email responding to questions, Red Sox principal owner John Henry said: "Differences are common in management." Mr. Epstein insisted he wasn't burned out. Baseball executives believe he will resurface with a team willing to grant him autonomy on baseball matters, a club presidency or even a small ownership stake, perks gained by Mr. Beane in Oakland. The Dodgers already are said to have contacted Mr. Epstein, and Major League Baseball is expected by the end of the month to choose an owner of the Washington Nationals, who might be interested in his services. Still, Mr. Epstein's departure was startling to other GMs. "I'm not disappointed that he's out of Boston," says J.P. Ricciardi, general manager of the Toronto Blue Jays, who play in the same division as the Red Sox. "But we lost a good guy. If he's unhappy enough to walk away, sometimes it makes you sit there and say, 'Is it worth it?' "

[Guest Rotblatt]

Fatsis & Weinbach get it all wrong, despite a promising start. I mean

]Why did Theo quit?

is a great question--lots of opportunity to hurl invective at everyone from management to Joe Six-Pack, AND a good starting point from which to misquote people. But NO, instead they took this nice, juicy lead and promptly RAN AWAY FROM IT, using it only as a peephole into the changing world of baseball management.

I mean, seriously, any sports journalist worth his salt could take a hanging slider of a topic like this and hit it out of the park with an uppercut "THEO CALLS un"LUCKY'S" BLUFF" or a line drive "TRAITOR THEO CALLS IT QUITS."

Losers.

And it gets worse, as for the next few paragraphs, the writers inexplicably NEVER WEIGH IN ON THE NEWS THEY'RE REPORTING!!! Not once do they condemn management for screwing Theo or call Theo a rat bastard for abandoning the Sox. Take this piece of claptrap:

]In media reports and cyberspace chatter, Mr. Epstein's departure has been linked to a power struggle in Red Sox upper management.

So who was right? Who was wrong? How are we supposed to know IF YOU DON'T TELL US?!!

And next they start talking about how the nature of the GM role has changed. Fine, right? A great opening for them to talk about how sportswriters like themselves have begun holding GM's accountable to hardworking everyday fans like you and me. Instead:

]The general manager used to be relatively anonymous, was often a former player and held near-total control over baseball operations. Now, as media scrutiny has increased and owners are forced to focus more than ever on the game's high financial stakes, the job has morphed into a corporate-executive position that has to report up the line.

Another strike, taken right at the knees.

And now we come to the factual errors.

]Mr. DePodesta majored in economics at Harvard and worked under acclaimed Oakland Athletics GM Billy Beane (playing a supporting role in Michael Lewis's bestselling book "Moneyball").

Who the hell is Michael Lewis? As EVERYONE KNOWS, Billy Beane wrote "Moneyball"!!!!

]While earning respect for his ability to blend traditional talent scouting with modern statistics-oriented research -- and while leading the Dodgers last year to their first playoff win since 1988 -- Mr. DePodesta had never run a team department at any level before taking over the club. As a result, baseball executives say, he struggled with some traditional management tasks, such as communicating with underlings and managing public-relations crises.

EVERYONE KNOWS DePodesta was fired because he was an egghead who never played baseball!!!

Yeesh, guys, try reading the paper sometime.

And finally, we come to yet another opportunity missed:

]At a news conference last week, Mr. Epstein cited "complexities" in his relationship with Mr. Lucchino, president and part owner of the team, but he didn't blame them for his resignation. "In the end, it just wasn't the right fit," he said. Mr. Lucchino didn't return a request for comment. In an email responding to questions, Red Sox principal owner John Henry said: "Differences are common in management."

If the principles won't be forthcoming, FIND SOMEONE WHO WILL!!! I mean, Jesus, don't Epstein, Lucchino & Henry have someone who waited on them in the past year you can talk to? Wouldn't this waiter "have reason to know" what they're all thinking and be able to shed some much-needed light on this valuable, paper-selling topic?

Amateurs.

Edgy, your article has sullied the good name of this thread. I hope you're ashamed.

[Willets Point]

I blame it on Shaugnessy.

[Guest Edgy DC]

]A great opening for them to talk about how sportswriters like themselves have begun holding GM's accountable to hardworking everyday fans like you and me.

You had fooled until you described me as "hardworking."