Baker dusted; Alou felipped-off

[howeird]

AFT!

Dusty Baker, who took a pretty damned fine Giants team and bled it into the ground, then did absolutely nothing for the hapless Cubs has been shown the door. Felipe Alou, who came to us from the Blew Jays to put the final nails in the Giants' coffin, was told not to show up for work again next season.

Neither of these guys deserve to be major league baseball managers. Never have, never will. They both seem to be Nice Guys™ - they both have a knack for finishing last.

And both men got my goat by doing stupid things on the field with their sons. Baker's little boy was put into a Giants uniform and regularly got in the way of the action as a bat boy, well before he was old enough to be out of the stands. Felipe hired his aging son Moises to play for his team. Sure, Barry Bonds came to the Giants while his dad was on the coaching staff, but Bobby Bonds wasn't his hiring manager. In fact, looking at the timing, Bobby may have owed his job to Barry coming on board. Whatever. The bottom line is I have no tolerance for nepotism getting in the way of the job.

Moises is a pretty good player compared to the rest of the Giants line-up, and that's the problem. The rest of the line-up belongs in the minors, Omar Vizquel possibly being the exception.

Now all we need to hear is the door slamming behind Mike Nolan and most of the rest of his 69ers coaching staff, and I'll be happy.

Comments

[scendan.livejournal.com]

Well, part of the problem also is they can't PAY the rest of the team while Barry is still slugging away on the team. No doubt the man can hit, but he can't RUN AFTER THE BALLS anymore. And he's paid so much, they've not got a strong team except for him.

At least, that's my take via watching my mom watch the Giants. I don't follow sports that much on my own. :)

[howeird]

Bonds brings more money into that stadium than he takes home with him. The revenue from the major networks when he was on his single-season home run record drive was astronomical - you have to consider that with so many games played every day, it's a crap shoot as to how many major network broadcasts a team gets. Without Bonds, the Giants are not worth the national interest. Each time a game is broadcast nationally, it earns megabucks for the team.

I'm not big fan of Barry, but as long as he stands a chance of beating Babe Ruth's career home run record, he earns a place on the team. And that includes injury time-outs.

You're right, he isn't the golden glove fielder he used to be.

As for his paycheck affecting the building of the team, my understanding is the Giants have plenty of $$ available for salaries. There's no salary cap in baseball.

Look across the Bay

[bigcatroary.livejournal.com]

You want to see a team run right, just look across the bay at the Raiders...no not the Raiders...the Warriors...d'oh...nope...oh yeah....The Oakland A's. Now there's a well run franchise. My team since 1970! Nice opening win yesterday against one of the game's best hurlers. And you got the saying wrong. It's not "There's no salary cap in baseball", it's "there's no crying in baseball".