Former Gator David Ross (that whole is his official name, I had it legally changed, despite his protests) hit a homer Monday night to take a lead over the Cardinals, but it wasn’t enough cushion for the Reds’ struggling bullpen, as the Reds lost 11-7.
To me, you score seven runs on a team, you oughta beat ’em.
Apparently the ownership agreed with this assertion, and Reds manager Jerry Narron was uncermoniously showed the door.
Now the rumour mill is churning up potential replacements. But they’re all former managers, and they’re going to run into the same issues that Narron did– lethargic team captains, a bullpen about as stable as a newborn giraffe, and a comparatively shallow experience pool.
It’s time to shake things up, to snap baseball out of its love of management musical chairs.
An icon, such as Johnny Bench, might be able to come in and trade on his achievements to motivate the players. Pretty much, if baseball still means anything at all, when someone like Johnny Bench says you ought to do something, you ought to do it, and everyone on the team knows it.
Or here’s another idea: Make Ken Griffey Junior or Adam Dunn the player/manager. Either of these laid-back team leaders might benefit from a new perspective, from having his name prominently associated with a team on track to lose 100 games this year. And if they’re trying hard, the team follows suit.
Or you could even go all out and say, “Pete Rose is the Reds manager again”. Banned from baseball? Too bad. Kick us out if you dare. The publicity alone would be worth it, and at the rate things are going, there’s little to lose.
Sure, that’d be a rotten thing to do to Barry “Better Living Through Chemistry” Bonds during his assault on Aaron’s home run record. But who wants to go through life with an asterisk stuck to his last name, anyway?
Just as an aside, the “wave” is about the most annoying, disrespectful, useless things ever created by a herd of people.
One way to do this might be to erect a bright flashing red and blue light on a portable, retractable tower, perhaps something akin to the towers used by remote television broadcast vans, or perhaps on a standalone tripod support.