Philadelphia Phillies hire Joe Girardi to right their ship
By Rick Soisson
The Big Day?
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As the sun rose on Oct. 24, baseball fans found the Nationals had won their second straight World Series game, and the Philadelphia Phillies had not announced a new manager at dawn. Of course, this rarely happens because – despite their usual casual dress – MLB owners, presidents and GMs are important business executives who set their own schedules. No big deal goes down early in the morning.
Instead, Phillies fans were treated to the musings of retired Yankees slugger Mark Teixeira on their doorsteps; Teixeira had played for both Showalter and Girardi in Texas and New York, respectively. Predictably, he waffled, finding both of his former managers quite capable and detail-oriented, with Showalter getting the highest marks for handling young players and Girardi for intensity.
Perhaps Teixeira leaned ever so slightly toward Girardi for the Phillies – “It’s the city of Rocky Balboa, right? You want somebody who’s out there fighting for you.”
As the morning crawled along, news commentators insisted the president either was or wasn’t in quite a pickle, depending on your cable station. On the Phillies website, Girardi was still in the top home page photo.
In the lull, an article posted before dawn in the New York Post was discovered. It had to do with the Phillies principal competition for Girardi, the Mets, and (get this) the fact that if New York didn’t hire the former catcher, that would be against the wishes of (drumroll, please) a talk show host on WFAN.
Mike Francesca was quoted, apparently with a straight face, as follows: “I made it clear that I thought Girardi was their guy. Not that that was worth anything to them. I don’t think it was. Maybe it was. I don’t know. I really can’t tell. They didn’t react to it, and that was it.”
They didn’t react to it. Wow.
Waiting for a new Phillies manager was getting to be like waiting for Bryce Harper last winter.
Actual News
Then, shortly before 9:30 a.m. in the East, Zolecki tweeted that a source confirmed Girardi had accepted the Phillies offer: “BREAKING: A source says the #Phillies have hired Joe Girardi as manager. An announcement could come today.” NJ.com believed it, carrying the story minutes later, adding commentary that was fairly obvious except for a prediction Girardi might well butt heads with GM Matt Klentak as former manager Gabe Kapler did not.
Next. Cubs: David Ross not the right choice for manager. dark
There you go! The old fightin’ spirit was back. Perhaps the Philadelphia Phillies would finally live up to one of their nicknames for the first time in nearly a decade.
A New York Post headline mourned the fact the Mets had lost out on their “top candidate.”