(not the Steve Fisher of baseball, but the Brewers skipper for at least 12 games)
Famously cited (incorrectly) by John Kerry as the Massachusetts pol’s favorite Red Sox player, Ned Yost was relieved of his duties as Milwaukee manager today, despite the Brewers being tied for the NL Wild Card. A once imposing 5 1/2 game advantage over the Phillies has disappeared, with the Brew Crue dropping 11 of their last 14 games, and ESPN.com’s Rob Neyer has trouble finding any precedent for this sort of late move, and though Phil Esposito firing Tom Webster comes to mind.
In 1981, the Royals fired manager Jim Frey on Aug. 31. Frey had led the Royals to the World Series in 1980, but in ’81 they were 20-30 when the strike began in June. The season resumed in early August, with the season now split into halves. Little more than a week later, general manager Joe Burke went looking for a new manager. He found Dick Howser, who took over from Frey with the Royals 10-10 in the second half and a half-game out of first place in the second-half standings. Under Howser, the Royals went 20-13 the rest of the way to qualify for the divisional playoffs (and were swept by the A’s).
If you’re looking for a similar situation, I suppose Frey’s is the closest. Like Yost’s Brewers, Frey’s Royals were in the running for a playoff spot. Like the Brewers, the Royals were regarded as under-performers. And like Yost, Frey was fired late in the season.
Not this late, though. The Brewers are trying something that’s never been tried before.
As I saw mentioned somewhere (message board or comments thread), the closest precedent would be the Devils’ Lou Lamoriello.
Wouldn’t a Lamoriello bit have entailed Yost being replaced by Bob Melvin or Doug Melvin, whichever one is the Brewers GM? Or Melvin Belli? I don’t know, the Brewers GM.
At any rate: I was really surprised by this. I guess Yost is apparently doing a bad job, but under what circumstances is Dale Sveum a step up over anyone, coaching wise?
Well, understandably, you are referrring to the most recent time, when Lou insanely and unsuccessfully replaced the coach with himself, on April 2 of ’07. But in 2000 he fired Robbie Ftorek on March 23 and Larry Robinson led the Devils to the Cup.
I dunno, Dale resonates just as much for me as Eric Wedge or Terry Francona
They’ve got four against the Cubs at Wrigley starting tomorrow, so I can’t blame them for desperation, especially after the Lehman Brothers-size collapse the Brewers suffered when the Cubs swept them for four at Miller, including CC Sabbathub.
Dale Sveum learned a lot during his tenure as the Red Sox’s 3B coach….namely how to get runners thrown out by ten feet.
Terry Francona has the occasional brain fart but given his success in the past 4 years (he’s never lost a World Series game) one could do much worse.