Martini Chuck's Insanity

Guys, I've impugned pretty much everything about Charlie Manuel on this here blog. Now, I'm going to impugn--basically the only thing left--the man's sanity. The brilliant physicist Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. It finally occurred to me, in the wake of yet another dismal start to a Phillies season, that Einstein's quote applies to Manuel and maybe even Phillies management.

Charlie Manuel insists on doing things the same way year in and year out, day in and day out. It's actually quite amazing how Manuel "manages" to do this without apparently noticing. Opening day, the Phils get a great start from Brett Myers and, going up against John Smoltz, the Phils' bats aren't exactly roaring, so they go to the 10th inning tied at three. Watching on a "gamecast," the minute Ryan Madsen's picture popped onto my computer screen I knew the game was going to be blown.

Game two: the Phillies are in practically the same situation and Manuel, for some incomprehensible reason, went back to Madsen. (Madsen's precipitously decreasing effectiveness is another discussion entirely). And, predictably, Madsen blew the game again. Phillies fans the world over get treated to another round of Charlie Manuel quotes like this: "Nobody likes to start the season at home by going 0-3, but sometimes that's a good measuring [stick] for your team. We'll see what kind of team we have."

By now, Manuel should know what kind of team he has! It's basically the same team he's always had: underachieving. Waiting around for Ryan Howard to bail him out with homeruns is not managing a baseball team.

Of course, all of this calls the sanity of Phillies management into question considering they insist on sticking with Manuel and getting the same squalid results: they started 1-6 in 2006 and 1-4 in 2005. If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times! Manuel has got to go.