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Blindfolds and Cigarettes

Frayed Knot Jun 17 2008 10:15 AM

So Willie joins Jeff Torborg and Art Howe as Met managers who won their last game before being canned. There may be others but I'm too lazy to look it up. Also, of the recently canned Mgrs & GMs, very few ever got their same level job within MLB GMs: Cashen - No, but that was most likely due to age McIlvane - Nope Harazin - Nope Steve Phillips - Not a nibble Duquette - I guess he did, although his title and structure in Baltimore made things a bit murky. For field managers, Bud Harrelson wound up in independant ball Dallas Green never got another mgr job. Bobby had to go to Japan and (to date) has not worked in MLB since his firing. Art Howe hasn't and almost certainly won't. Leaving Jeff Freakin Torborg as the only fired Met mgr since Davey Johnson to get re-hired elsewhere (Florida) in that same position. Willie? -- Only time will tell but I'm not sure there's going to be a path beat to his door. Doesn't say much for the hiring track record does it?

John Cougar Lunchbucket Jun 17 2008 10:21 AM

Hodges had trouble finding work after he left the Mets. Stengel was finished probably before he started. Howard, Cubbage and Frazier never had another managing job. Wes Westrum considered a failure, actally got a managing job after he was whacked. And Yogi was rehired by the Yankees. Salty Parker managed again briefly with the Astros.

AG/DC Jun 17 2008 10:32 AM

Joe McDonald had a farm... ... system to run when he was hired to be GM of some successful Cardinal teams after flopping with the Mets. How much of his job was just a figurehead for Whitey Herzog, I'm not sure.

Benjamin Grimm Jun 17 2008 10:54 AM

This makes me wonder about the "manager merry-go-round" that we hear about, how the same cast of characters keeps getting rehired. I would guess that for every manager who gets multiple jobs, there are two or three or more who only get that one shot. Although just looking at the Mets list would seem to disprove that. Not counting the interims, only Frazier and Harrelson (and, for now at least, Randolph) were one-team managers.

DocTee Jun 17 2008 11:03 AM

I never understood why some guys who do terrible jobs (Phil Garner, Buddy Bell) get multiple chances, while lots of guys who had moderate success (like Kevin Kennedy and Ken Macha) never get another shot to manage. Guys I'd like to see the Mets consider include Kennedy, Orel Hershiser, and just for the sheer anti-Willie-ness of it, Lloyd McClendon.

Nymr83 Jun 17 2008 11:44 AM

Girardi did a GREAT job considering the circumstances in Florida, but had he not been a beloved yankee would he ever have gotten a 2nd shot?

AG/DC Jun 17 2008 11:47 AM

Sure. I think he turned down at least one job, while pulling out of the interview process for at least one other.

Nymr83 Jun 17 2008 11:47 AM

ok, i dont remember reading that

metsguyinmichigan Jun 17 2008 11:50 AM

Nymr83 wrote: ok, i dont remember reading that I think it was the Reds, and they offered him a ridiculously low salary. Something along those lines.

AG/DC Jun 17 2008 11:54 AM

He interviewed with the Cubs and Nats and Orioles, at least, before taking the Yankee job, and was a frontrunner for each, if not the frontrunner for each.

SteveJRogers Jun 17 2008 12:44 PM

metsguyinmichigan wrote: ="Nymr83"]ok, i dont remember reading that I think it was the Reds, and they offered him a ridiculously low salary. Something along those lines. That was one of Willie's 11 previous ones that may or may not have been racially based (according to Willie and some pro-Willie media members in NYC)

AG/DC Jun 17 2008 12:46 PM

You're just the little pot-stirrer, aren't you?