I thought I was fairly distraught about the end of the regular season, but the LA Times’ Bill Plaschke has it even worse. How many more times can he call Frank McCourt (background) a tightwad and Paul DePodesta (foreground) a computer geek?
At least once more, as it turns out.
So this is how life looks from the twisted tower occupied by Frank McCourt.
You give the keys of your prized car to a kid still learning to drive.
he kid steers it through bushes, over mailboxes and to the bottom of a ditch.
You are so angry, you punish ¦ the mechanic who can’t fix it?
That’s what happened Monday, McCourt protecting his overmatched computer guy at the expense of a veteran baseball guy who was unable to cover the kid’s mistakes.
Jim Tracy has been ejected, Paul DePodesta has been endorsed, and those Dodger fans still willing to support this nonsense should be very afraid.
This was not a decision about winning ” manager Tracy had winning records in four of his five seasons, winning more than 90 games twice.
This was not a decision about championships ” Tracy led the team to its first postseason victory in 16 years.
This was a decision about a vision, one that insists baseball games can be won on a spreadsheet and on the cheap, with little regard for character or chemistry or heart.
It’s a vision held by DePodesta, the general manager who believes he can break into the playoffs the way a hacker breaks into a corporation ” with a few keystrokes, fewer dollars, and no conscience.
It’s a vision despised by Tracy, who watched it tear apart his division championship team last winter.
It’s a vision that has yet to result in a playoff series victory in the three places where it is prominently pushed ” Oakland, Los Angeles and Toronto.
Yet it is a vision shared by McCourt, because it helps him save money, and this latest foolishness shows that nothing matters more to him than money.
I know the situation’s a little different, but isn’t it fair to say that this vision has been “prominently pushed” in Boston, where, if I’m correct, the team has won a couple of playoff series over the past few years? Hasn’t Plaschke gotten his promo copy of Mind Game yet?
yeah, the knee jerk hating/characterization of all things moolah-ball is such a tired journey to cliche city. Plaschke might have a copy of Mind Game, but will anyone volunteer to read it out loud to him?
If Tracy’s defenders can point to a spate of injuries as a reason for his poor W-L record in 2005, can’t DePodesta’s apologists do the same (though the loss of JD Drew was hardly unexpected).
Splashing out on Drew and Kent isn’t the kind of thing I associate with a penny-pinching club. Had DePodesta coughed up the cash to retain Beltre, would Plaschke be cutting the GM some slack? I doubt it.