Jake Fox of the Orioles swung at a 3-0 pitch in an exhibition game against the Tigers yesterday. Baltimore led 13-3 in the 8th inning when Fox took his cut. He ended up walking and when he got to first Detroit manager Jim Leyland yelled at him. Shut up smokestack. It's a damn exhibition game. What good does it do a guy to walk in spring training? Isn't he trying to get his swing down?
Immediately the Baltimores anal manager Buck Showalter removed Fox with a pinch runner and berated him in the dugout. Methinks Bucky is wound a little too tight and he shouldn't be showing up his player in full view of everybody. If Showalter was upset at Fox breaking a so-called unwritten rule, he should have taken Fox aside, out of view and explained his thinking. But to just rip a guy for taking a 3-0 swing in an exhibition game is stupid.
Showalter is a smart baseball man but he ends up alienating his team because of his stupid rules and unhappy demeanor. He's always got the ass about something and that is why his teams eventually tune him out. Plus, he's taking heat, and rightfully so, for his comments on the way Derek Jeter supposedly gets calls on inside pitches by the way he bails out, and his negative comments on Red Sox G.M. Theo Epstein, saying Epstein wouldn't be so smart if he had the Rays payroll. Red Sox manager Terry Francona was rightfully upset with those comments. Showalter should worry about his own team and pipe down about other players and teams.
Meanwhile, Jim Leyland is another salty-ass. My friend Jan Sumner was a batting practice pitcher for the Rockies for six seasons, including Leyland's one year in Colorado in 1999. Jan said that Leyland didn't say hello to him once. He never acknowledged someone who was part of the organization. I guess it was beneath Leyland to talk to a BP pitcher.
When I look at Leyland and Showalter I see two miserable guys and overbearing managers. Do they ever get any joy out of managing and being in the big leagues? I hope they have crappy seasons this year. It would fit their dispositions.
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Well looks like bucko hasn't learned from all the other teams that canned him. All because he is a jerk. This just means the O's will win with the next manager, just ask Joe and Bob.
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