GaryMrMets
08-01-2004, 07:35 PM
http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/sports/9279092.htm
Posted on Fri, Jul. 30, 2004
Rich Hofmann | WADE AND SEE APPROACH
hofmanr@phillynews.com
MIAMI - The Gang of Ed, gathered in Clearwater for the last few days as the Phillies plotted their immediate future, will begin scattering today. Dallas Green, the organizational wise man, is going back to Philadelphia. Ruben Amaro, the assistant general manager, will be heading to Chicago to join the limp, limping ballclub.
As Ed Wade reported this over the cell phone late yesterday afternoon - after another wretched Phillies loss to the Marlins, followed by a long clubhouse meeting whose tone apparently fell somewhere between Krakatoa and Kumbaya - the general manager sensed the twitching of antennae and stopped them immediately.
"Ruben was going to Chicago all along," Wade said. "It was preplanned. His family went out there today. It doesn't mean anything."
And Wade laughed. He knew the purpose of the phone call within a few seconds of answering it, and he didn't duck.
His manager, Larry Bowa, is presumed to be under fire after getting swept by the Marlins, and after a series of players publicly questioned the atmosphere around the ballclub following Bowa's pronouncement that he was "embarrassed" to be losing so much to Florida (now 14 straight losses at Pro Player Stadium, and 23 out of 26 games overall to the Marlins).
But Wade rebutted the presumption.
Asked if Bowa was now on a shorter leash than in the past, Wade said, "Than he was 3 days ago? No. I don't think, all of a sudden, that people have to do daily job-status reports just because issues like this occur."
Grammarians will parse those sentences and find all of the loopholes they want, and the baseball reality is that those words will be rendered meaningless if the Phillies continue to be left for a pile of rotting flesh in the afternoon heat, as they were yesterday.
Still, the words and the tone and the overall sense of the conversation was clear: that Wade has not been spooked about his manager by the reports this week of discontent in the clubhouse.
"All this stuff, from what I've read and seen from a distance, is the frustration of a team not playing up to its capabilities," Wade said. "It's frustration on [Bowa's] part and it's frustration in the clubhouse.
"Is it great that it happened? No. But it is not unexpected when the expectations are high and when you struggle against a club like we've struggled against the Marlins. I think the best thing that can happen is for our team to get out of Florida and get to Chicago and get back at it and hopefully win some games."
As Wade spoke, the Phillies' team buses were headed to the airport, fleeing the grisly scene. All that was left behind was the 10-1 total on the scoreboard and the series of chalk outlines arrayed on the field.
After the game, the clubhouse doors remained shut for a full 35 minutes, which is a postgame eternity. Bat boys and other clubhouse attendants who were caught outside were barred from entering, forced to stand in the hallway with reporters who alternately looked at their watches and wondered.
Inside, Bowa called a meeting that, by all accounts, was nothing like the snapout he had last year in Montreal. After that one, the players came to their lockers in ones and twos with the appearance of accident victims - and called their own meeting on a team bus soon after. This was different.
This time, the meeting was not a one-way conversation but a dialogue. As Jim Thome said, "The tone was to try to get us to play better, basically."
The word "constructive" seemed to be tossed around a bit during postgame/postmeeting interviews with players, which made it either the correct or the politically correct analysis; your choice. When it all comes down to it, though, only the future will be able to define the present reality.
Translation: If the Phils start winning, the meeting will have been constructive but, if they keep losing, Bowa is going to keep getting asked if he's embarrassed and the players are going to keep getting asked about the perception of negative energy surrounding the team.
That is the dynamic that played out here this week, a dynamic that Wade says he understands.
"It just goes back to the reality of high expectations," he said. "It's the same for the players, for Bo and the staff. And when somebody expresses frustration or embarrassment, you have to expect that people are going to respond."
But didn't the fact that Rheal Cormier, Billy Wagner and Roberto Hernandez went on the record with their complaints, rather than the familiar off-the-record grumbling, raise the issue to a higher level - and one that is more troublesome for the manager's long-term employment prospects?
"If Rheal Cormier felt that way, I'd prefer he say it for attribution rather than say it behind the scenes and create more problems," Wade said. "I'd rather it be out in the open so that everyone can deal with it and move on."
Wade said he is staying in Clearwater until the trade deadline passes tomorrow afternoon. He says he is still working on several potential deals, and that the Phils have "two or three things on the table that hinge on other clubs' ability to do other things. You're a phone call away from making a deal, or three phone calls away from having nothing."
And, at about 5 p.m. yesterday, Wade did not sound like a general manager who was a phone call away from firing his manager.
"It's better that everybody just figures it out, that we don't get bogged down in a four-game losing streak in Florida, or the fact that we're 3 ½ games out now, or that we're tied with the Marlins," he said. "We can't lose sight of the fact that this journey still has a lot of mileage left to it."
Posted on Fri, Jul. 30, 2004
Rich Hofmann | WADE AND SEE APPROACH
hofmanr@phillynews.com
MIAMI - The Gang of Ed, gathered in Clearwater for the last few days as the Phillies plotted their immediate future, will begin scattering today. Dallas Green, the organizational wise man, is going back to Philadelphia. Ruben Amaro, the assistant general manager, will be heading to Chicago to join the limp, limping ballclub.
As Ed Wade reported this over the cell phone late yesterday afternoon - after another wretched Phillies loss to the Marlins, followed by a long clubhouse meeting whose tone apparently fell somewhere between Krakatoa and Kumbaya - the general manager sensed the twitching of antennae and stopped them immediately.
"Ruben was going to Chicago all along," Wade said. "It was preplanned. His family went out there today. It doesn't mean anything."
And Wade laughed. He knew the purpose of the phone call within a few seconds of answering it, and he didn't duck.
His manager, Larry Bowa, is presumed to be under fire after getting swept by the Marlins, and after a series of players publicly questioned the atmosphere around the ballclub following Bowa's pronouncement that he was "embarrassed" to be losing so much to Florida (now 14 straight losses at Pro Player Stadium, and 23 out of 26 games overall to the Marlins).
But Wade rebutted the presumption.
Asked if Bowa was now on a shorter leash than in the past, Wade said, "Than he was 3 days ago? No. I don't think, all of a sudden, that people have to do daily job-status reports just because issues like this occur."
Grammarians will parse those sentences and find all of the loopholes they want, and the baseball reality is that those words will be rendered meaningless if the Phillies continue to be left for a pile of rotting flesh in the afternoon heat, as they were yesterday.
Still, the words and the tone and the overall sense of the conversation was clear: that Wade has not been spooked about his manager by the reports this week of discontent in the clubhouse.
"All this stuff, from what I've read and seen from a distance, is the frustration of a team not playing up to its capabilities," Wade said. "It's frustration on [Bowa's] part and it's frustration in the clubhouse.
"Is it great that it happened? No. But it is not unexpected when the expectations are high and when you struggle against a club like we've struggled against the Marlins. I think the best thing that can happen is for our team to get out of Florida and get to Chicago and get back at it and hopefully win some games."
As Wade spoke, the Phillies' team buses were headed to the airport, fleeing the grisly scene. All that was left behind was the 10-1 total on the scoreboard and the series of chalk outlines arrayed on the field.
After the game, the clubhouse doors remained shut for a full 35 minutes, which is a postgame eternity. Bat boys and other clubhouse attendants who were caught outside were barred from entering, forced to stand in the hallway with reporters who alternately looked at their watches and wondered.
Inside, Bowa called a meeting that, by all accounts, was nothing like the snapout he had last year in Montreal. After that one, the players came to their lockers in ones and twos with the appearance of accident victims - and called their own meeting on a team bus soon after. This was different.
This time, the meeting was not a one-way conversation but a dialogue. As Jim Thome said, "The tone was to try to get us to play better, basically."
The word "constructive" seemed to be tossed around a bit during postgame/postmeeting interviews with players, which made it either the correct or the politically correct analysis; your choice. When it all comes down to it, though, only the future will be able to define the present reality.
Translation: If the Phils start winning, the meeting will have been constructive but, if they keep losing, Bowa is going to keep getting asked if he's embarrassed and the players are going to keep getting asked about the perception of negative energy surrounding the team.
That is the dynamic that played out here this week, a dynamic that Wade says he understands.
"It just goes back to the reality of high expectations," he said. "It's the same for the players, for Bo and the staff. And when somebody expresses frustration or embarrassment, you have to expect that people are going to respond."
But didn't the fact that Rheal Cormier, Billy Wagner and Roberto Hernandez went on the record with their complaints, rather than the familiar off-the-record grumbling, raise the issue to a higher level - and one that is more troublesome for the manager's long-term employment prospects?
"If Rheal Cormier felt that way, I'd prefer he say it for attribution rather than say it behind the scenes and create more problems," Wade said. "I'd rather it be out in the open so that everyone can deal with it and move on."
Wade said he is staying in Clearwater until the trade deadline passes tomorrow afternoon. He says he is still working on several potential deals, and that the Phils have "two or three things on the table that hinge on other clubs' ability to do other things. You're a phone call away from making a deal, or three phone calls away from having nothing."
And, at about 5 p.m. yesterday, Wade did not sound like a general manager who was a phone call away from firing his manager.
"It's better that everybody just figures it out, that we don't get bogged down in a four-game losing streak in Florida, or the fact that we're 3 ½ games out now, or that we're tied with the Marlins," he said. "We can't lose sight of the fact that this journey still has a lot of mileage left to it."