Sez Me …
Bligh. Ahab. Hook. Morgan.
Since he announced his retirement as captain of the Supposedly Good Ship Padres, Mike Shildt has been compared to all the famous skippers with a touch of a temper.
Not exactly Captain Stubing, they say. Tough on his crew of coaches, easier on his passengers/players.
If this were indeed the case, then the next skipper should be the exact opposite — easy on the crew and rough on the passengers. The Padres should have been better. The Padres needed clutch, squeezed out of all the money they’ve spent.
I guess Shildt was a pretty good manager. He made the playoffs without a player who could drive home a runner in scoring position in his Rolls.
He had to be doing something wrong, along with the right. But did anything he did really matter on the road to a flag? To blame him for this team’s troubles is/was stupid.
What the hell makes a great manager, anyway? Pat Murphy, sure to be Manager of the Year for the job he did this season in Milwaukee, was canned here by A.J. Preller in 2015. Pat reportedly had an unchecked circus going in the clubhouse.
Now he’s John McGraw, now he’s not. Carved to the bone by the Dodgers.
Since their birth in 1969, the Pads have had 23 managers, so their average lifespan on the bridge has been less than three years. Preller has been GM here since 2014, still hasn’t won squat, but will get a chance to hire his ninth skipper.
Bruce Bochy is out there again, and of course he’d be the best hire, but this group had a chance to get him after he left the Giants with three rings. He went to Texas and added to his jewelry box, is all.
Shildt says he got death threats from gamblers during the season, which has been happening to many people involved in sports. But if you’re dumb enough to bet on a game impossible to analyze, you’ve got to have something seriously wrong with you, so it figures.
That’s the way of the world now with managers, part of the prize you get for being one of the 30 in the world doing the job. But I do know you have to be tougher. Shildt was an old-timer, relying more on feel and instinct than the cellar-dwelling nerds who run the sport with impossible numbers that don’t mean a damn thing.
The Padres’ main problem this year wasn’t the manager or the pitching or the defense. It was clutch hitting. Manny Machado, who comes to play, led the team with 95 RBIs. Not enough.
You tell me. Know the Pads’ all-time RBI leader? Tony Gwynn, with 1,138. Know who’s second? Manny, with 631. Those 23 managers have been bad at driving in runs.
This team needs studs who don’t crawl under the bench when a runner gets to second base. They don’t have to hit .500. They just have to show up and be somebody every once in a while. When the Padres scored four runs in a game, they practically were unbeatable.
And they need someone who has shaved — but not every day — to guide them. What they don’t need is lollipops given to them after every game, as Shildt did.
They need someone to kick ass. …
The Chiefs were coming off of a terrible penalty day, so the refs made sure it didn’t happen again. Kansas City had zero penalties against Detroit, probably the most physical team in the NFL. But not impossible. It had happened before — once in the history of The League, which just turned 104. …
A University of Texas at El Intercepted Paso study shows the Chiefs have benefited from slanted officiating since 2015. Surprising? It also proves Washington won the first election. …
Buffalo has beaten four teams with a total of three wins. Shuffling off the playoff watch. …
The Titans have fired Brian Callahan and named Mike “I Always Do A Good Job” McCoy as interim head coach. Proof that it’s hard to find a winner after you’ve pink-slipped the boss. …
How can you possibly get Tennessee to rhyme with mess? Just a horrendous organization. …
Mike once said he’d never lie to us. I now wonder if he’ll admit he’s talked to doctors and trainers prior to 1 in the afternoon the day after games. One of my favorite head coach whoppers. …
Isn’t it amazing how talking tonsils suddenly — again! — find Patrick Mahomes the best quarterback? He is a blow-up toy who can’t be deflated by mayhem around him or darts thrown at him. And yet I can’t stand watching him play. Hell, they’re still the Chiefs. …
Oh, and Andy Reid remains the best coach. …
Aaron Rodgers says after he’s thrown his final spiral, nobody’s going to hear from him or see him for four years. In the next version of the Bible, this will be known as “Four Years of Heavenly Bliss.” …
But I have a feeling it will be: “This, too, shall pass.” …
Tom Brady has the second-most receiving yards (98) of any player after turning 40 — about 2,100 fewer than Jerry Rice. …
Joe Flacco is 40. So it’s OK to call him a genius. …
In a wide receiver forest of prima donnas, Ja’Marr Chase is the tallest. And acts like the smallest. Brilliant player. …
Meanwhile, Chiefs receiver Rashee Rice is back after spending five months in the jug and a six-game suspension for his major role in a multiple-car crash that left many people injured. “He looks good,” somebody said. Well, that’s nice to hear. …
I feel sorry for people who’ve been canned. But it’s a little tougher with James Franklin. He was thrown out of a plane with an insane $50 million diamond parachute and, face it, he never won a game that mattered at Penn State. As Rick Smith would say: “Bye!”…
Franklin says he can’t wait to coach again and win a national title. So he’s going to be an assistant at Ohio State? …
The Nittanies were 20-point-plus favorites over UCLA and Northwestern. Lost. How many times has a great program fired a head coach midseason? …
Nick Saban says it was wrong for Penn State to fire Franklin after all he did for the school. No, Nick, it was wrong to extend him for all he did for the school. …
Carson Beck blames his receiver for an interception he threw in Miami’s loss to Louisville. Nothing on his three other picks. What a leader NFL brains have to figure out. …
Remind me to send Carson this memo: Play better. …
Herschel Walker has been confirmed as U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas. You don’t hear much from the Bahamas. What could it have possibly done to deserve this guy? …
Hundreds of people parading in the nude were protesting ICE in the Portland rain. At first I thought it was aimed at local dynamo Nike for producing too much clothing. …