Ch-ch-changes

There will be plenty o'baseball to write about next week.  But, amid all the fuss and feathers of the Mets going to the World Series, there's this somber piece of news.

I have to retire this jersey to my closet.  

People often asked me why I like to wear a manager's jersey.   Well, in this case, there were four good reasons.  

1.  Nobody else does.

2.  I like to manage the game from my seat in the stadium, right along with the field boss.

3.  This particular jersey number was worn in honor of Yogi Berra.

4.  Don Mattingly is a class act.

So, after five really decent seasons as Dodger skipper, the team and Don Mattingly have reached an amicable parting of the ways.  Or so the press release said.  That could be PR-speak for either two things...

From Mattingly's POV, "I'm sick of this shit and I want to work someplace else."  And he will...probably by next Monday.

Or...

From the team's POV, "We're sick of this and we want you to work someplace else."  

Perhaps and likely it's someplace in the middle.  And I will get the real story because one of my really good friends is one of Don's best friends.  I will get the scoop most definitely.  Indeed, from what my friend told me a month ago, I had a feeling this was coming.  

I was always a fan of what he did with this team, especially in the clubhouse where he essentially juggled the ego of 25 different billionaires.   Now, at the same time, I know lots of Dodger fan who absolutely hated him.  Thought he was an idiot.  And were inwardly angry because he had the misfortune of never playing for the team.   

That was not me.  Oh, don't get me wrong.  He had his flaws during the game. Some of his bullpen moves were a little too Joe Torre-esque.  He bunted more than he should.  He didn't squeeze play enough.   

But, then again, there was growth visible over the five years.  And 2015 was perhaps his best season of managing yet, especially with what this new geek squad of a front office presented him with.  Juggling a starting rotation of fourth and fifth starters from Triple A on a weekly basis.  Injuries to key members of the bullpen.   And an insistence of stupid infield shifts that lost them more games than they won.

Indeed, one might argue that the front office was the primary reason why the Dodgers lost to the Mets in the Division Series.   I mean, the Dodgers actually beat them in two games whereas the Cubs folded up like Wrigley's Spearmint Gum in the following series.   I mean, if the Dodger front office had gone out and gotten either Cole Hamels or Johnny Cueto (which they could have done easily at the trading deadline), they would have had a fighting chance in the pivotal Game 3.  

And, if they were pulling one of those idiotic lefty shifts in Game 5, the Mets don't get that guy to third base so they can score the tying run.   Supposedly, there were some philosophic differences between Mattingly and the front office post-playoffs and I will bet that was one of them.  Because I think Donnie Baseball knows that the game is ultimately played by hungry players and not stat-laden computers.   The Mets and probably the Royals are proving just that.

But the Geek Squad is in power and damn the torpedos, full speed ahead.  Now it's all on super nerd Andrew Freedman (you just know he had the shit kicked out of him regularly in high school) and that general manager with the funny name, Yabba Dabba Doo Whatever.

So, I will always fondly remember the years of watching Don Mattingly run the third base dugout in Dodger Stadium.   And the time I got to bowl alongside him at a charity event in 2013.   He was very friendly and we joked a lot as we would be both coming up to the line to bowl at the exact same time.

A fond memory for me.   Even if I was thirty pounds heavier and looking like Steve Allen.

Thanks for everything, Don.  And where ever you are managing next year, I will be buying that team's hat in your honor.

Dinner last night:  Chef's salad.