So, I'm always writing in the 50-center and here on The Blog that Charlie Manuel is great at keeping the Phillies loose and relaxed, especially in tense situations. There was a great example of that last Saturday in Denver:About three hours before Game 3, Manuel and Jimmy Rollins walked into their pre-game news conference and performed comedy. It started when Rollins was asked about the now-famous tarp incident in July, when the Phils lent their hands to the Coors Field grounds crew, some of whom were trapped under a runaway tarp during a major storm.
"Tarp duty is off this time," Rollins said with a smile.
"We're [down] 0-2," Manuel said. "We win tonight, we're 1-2. If there's any kind of tarp duty, hell no! Let [Rockies general manager] Dan O'Dowd get his own crew."
"Where we you at for all that, Chuck?" Rollins asked.
"I was in the dugout," Manuel said. "Supervising."
"As usual," Rollins said, smiling again.
Watching all of this, I almost forgot the Phillies were facing elimination. Manuel and Rollins couldn't have appeared more calm. Anyway, point is, Manuel was rewarded for his steady hand last night with a two-year contract extension. Got to run to the Bank for a 10 a.m. news conference, so I'll have more on this later.
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In today's 50-center, we examine the top-five questions facing the Phils now that Manuel's situation is resolved.
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Mentioned I was a guest of Harry Mayes and Jamie Yannacone (the 700 Level Fanatics) yesterday on Sports Radio 950. You can download the podcast here.
2 comments:
Does anyone know anything about this proposed sale of the phillies
On Daily News Live today Stan Hochman of the Daily News said he had a very good source, wouldn't reveal who naturally, who said the team would be sold before Manuel's contract was up. He said the only hang up was one of the partners still holding out and since the sale had to be unanimous with all of the partners, the other partners were in the process of wearing down this lone holdout. He said he was certain the team would be sold within the next two years. He also said when asked that it wasn't Ed Snider but it was someone who owns some buildings in Philadelphia (he was asked if they were sitting in the building of the possible buyer, CSN is in Ed Sniders building, the Wachovia Center, that they weren't but the buyer owned many buildings in Philly).
Also, SI.com's Jon Heyman listed the Phillies as potential bidders for A-Rod. Scott, do you think there is any validity to this, and if so could this new potential owner tell Monty contract parameters that he would be willing to go with A-Rod. Because interestingly enough, in the AP story about Manuel resigning they mentioned payroll would be increasing this year, straight from Monty's mouth.
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