Short of being lectured by Steve Phillips, is there anything more humiliating than being scolded by Jim Bowden about a dubious career move? “Now you’re in a situation where you’ve got to go back and manage Double A and build yourself all the way back,” intoned Bowden in the direction of new Pensacola Blue Wahoos skipper Jim Riggleman on the former’s Sirius/XM show earlier today, as the latter attempted to put a positive spin on his widely mocked decision (well, by everyone except Ben Schwartz) to bolt the Washington Nationals last summer. From the Washington Post’s Dan Steinberg :
“The way I’ve explained it to people, I think I did the right thing, probably not the smart thing,” Riggleman said. “You know, sometimes there is a difference. And I think for my own situation I did do the right thing, but certainly it’s not a smart thing to do to give up a Major League managing job….
“Because people are not gonna have all the information. And I certainly am moving on and am not really gonna disclose information, because I have great respect for the Nationals and what they have achieved and what they will continue to achieve. But when all the information isn’t out there, there’s gonna be a lot of people who think how dare you do that! And believe me, I would probably be one of those people who would be thinking that way.”
“…if you’re not [committed], if your mind is somewhere else, then you’re stealing money. You’re taking their money basically under false pretenses. You’re in a mood that you’re not gonna be able to connect to players, you’re putting too much thought into things. And I just thought you know what, I’m not gonna do that, I’m not gonna take the money. And I could have stayed and been unhappy and taken the money, but I didn’t do that.”