Friday, November 11, 2005 |
Does The Flying Dutchman Even Need A Rudder?
The actual identity of that trust remains unknown, and may yet remain so for some time. Frank McCourt, publically an unabashed know-it-all who apparently knows nothing about organizational stability, has compounded a 91-loss season by wiping the floor with his manager and general manager. Behind his back, Moneyballers and tobacco-spitters alike grin knowingly; surely, some of them quietly place bets as to how long he owns the team.
So like undercooked fish at a C-rated Chinese restaurant, some things are destined to come up no matter how hard you might clench your gut and wish otherwise. For the Dodgers, interviews with Z-grade cast members like Ned Colletti have a certain death-and-taxes inevitability to them, prompting untoward thoughts from Steve, whose recognition of McCourt's idiocy comes late, but remains welcome nonetheless. "This is absolutely and completely an insane asylum", he writes; nostalgia takes him down Fox Lane, pining for the good old days when Dan Evans hired washed-up veterans like Fred McGriff while fielding one of the best pitching staffs this side of the Dead Ball Era. There's a certain Nixonian "you won't have Dan Evans to kick around anymore" feeling this offseason has evoked; from here, one wonders how much we'll come to appreciate, not just 2004, but 2005 -- for the last month where we had actual hope.
While everyone else frets over who will get the GM's job, the appalling leakage of personnel continues. How soon before we hear that the Devil Rays wish to interview Logan White, supposed superscout, for a position there -- and he takes it? And what of Director of Player Development Terry Collins, so recently tagged as one of DePodesta's favorites by the press, and possibly, by the vampire Lasorda himself? What of Roy Smith, who played Vice Whatisit to Kim Ng's Assistant Something-or-Other at this week's GM meetings? Would he offer to trade himself and Andy LaRoche to the Phillies for a bucket of balls and a regional crosschecker's job? The whole thing could unravel in a few heartbeats, what with McCourt's propensity for arrythmic and scattershot firings.
I have long suspected that Bud Selig's aim in giving the Dodgers to such a clearly incapable pair was to hamstring one of the game's key, major market franchises; certainly, he recognizes that the Dodgers have lost not only their GM and field manager, but their moorings as well. If this goes on much longer, they'll also lose large portions of their fan base. What Selig didn't count on was an aggressive owner to the south, one dedicated to putting a quality product on the field and a business plan on something larger than a cocktail napkin.
Update: Today's Times contains J.A. Adande's wish that Ng not walk into a setup for failure, writing
When it comes to coaches and general managers, diversity is normally a byproduct of prosperity or desperation — and we know which category the Dodgers are in. That makes this job the wrong place and time for Ng to become the first Asian and female GM in major professional sports.While I understand his concern, it should be duly noted that Jackie Robinson played for Montreal in 1946; two years before that, the Dodgers finished 87-67, and in 1944, 63-91; should the Dodgers have waited until they'd won a hundred games before introducing Robinson? Failure is part of the game, and so is risk. Frank may not understand that, but I'm quite certain Kim Ng does.
: 11/11/2005 09:32:00 AM
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