When the Phillies hired Joe Girardi to fix their forever-.500 problem, the runners-up in their high-powered managerial derby were Dusty Baker and Buck Showalter, …
When the Phillies hired Joe Girardi to fix their forever-.500 problem, the runners-up in their high-powered managerial derby were Dusty Baker and Buck Showalter, who each have a chance to win fourth Manager of the Year awards, respectively, with other teams. Give the Phillies this: They identified three established and great baseball minds, and had a 67 percent chance to get it right. But alas, they blew it. Girardi’s firing on Friday, two-plus seasons into his dreadful Phillies tenure, was only surprising in that it came less than one-third into their season from hell. A manager with Girardi’s pedigree often will be given more rope with which to hang himself or pull off that turnaround miracle. But Phillies baseball president Dave Dombrowski isn’t afraid to act — he once fired Phil Garner six losses into a historically dreadful Tigers season. And in this case, Girardi wasn’t Dombrowski’s mistake. Team higher-ups want to give themselves a shot this season, and while it looks like a long one, a big change like this is probably their best hope. Girardi looked like a solid fit when he went to Philly, a veteran team that seemed to be underachieving and appeared only a piece or two away from contending year. Turns out Girardi was not that piece. He knows the game, but not that city. The 22-29 record (plus the lifelessness of the team and a couple questionable recent moves) is what did him in. But don’t think his own mostly emotionless demeanor didn’t hurt him, too. Phillies fans are fanatical, and radio airwaves there, as influential as anywhere, were running about 100 to 1 against. Fans who suggested Girardi didn’t care don’t know the man who bleeds losses from his days as Northwestern Joe through the Rockies, Cubs, Yankees and Marlins.
