What an unbelievable day it was in sports yesterday! How about that soccer game!
When Landon Donovan scored that goal, I screamed, "YES!" in my office. I felt bad because one of the girls on my team was giving a demo of our product and I completely threw her off.
I am pretty sure that is not in the being a good manager manual.
We also saw a 10-hour tennis match yesterday. A 10-hour tennis match! I can’t even sleep for 10 hours, let alone play a highly competitive tennis match.
Unfortunately, there was one guy who didn’t think yesterday was a great day in sports. His name is Fredi Gonzalez.
The Florida Marlins fired Gonzalez and two coaches yesterday. The Marlins replaced Gonzalez with minor-league manager Edwin Rodriguez on an interim basis.
Can’t say I'm really shocked by this.
The Marlins wanted to fire Gonzalez at the end of last year, but decided to bring him back for another season. Gonzalez's fate was sealed, however, due to the Marlins slow start, coupled with his incident with star player Hanley Ramirez earlier this season.
Despite the Marlins being two games under .500 (34-36) entering last night’s action, they have been playing better as of late, so the timing of the move is a bit curious.
I guess Marlins’ owner Jeffrey Loria is hoping for the same results in 2010 as he got in 2003 when he fired Jeff Torborg 38 games into the season.
The Marlins replaced Torborg with Jack McKeon and the team went on to win the World Series. I believe Loria will seek another high-profile manager to replace Gonzalez/Rodriguez.
That manager is Bobby Valentine.
Valentine managed the Texas Rangers when Loria owned the organization’s Triple-A team in Oklahoma from 1989 to 1992. So there is a connection.
Even if they do hire Valentine, I am not sure how much a difference he is going to make. It’s hard to win when your team has a mediocre bullpen and a lousy defense.
Here is how I think the managing carousel will break down:
Florida Marlins: Bobby Valentine
Baltimore Orioles: Buck Showalter
Atlanta Braves: Fredi Gonzalez (when Bobby Cox retires, of course)
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