La Ruina

Hi! Long time no bloggy blog.

I just want to check in and point out that the Milwaukee Brewers : Coke 2 :: A real fucking baseball team : Coca-Cola.

Ryan Braun, today, after getting swept by the Red Sox:

“I almost felt like this series, we didn’t expect to win,” Braun said after the 11-7 defeat that dropped the Brewers into sole possession of last place in the NL Central with five consecutive losses. “We were competing; I know everybody tried hard. But it’s not about trying hard. You’ve got to expect to win. I almost feel like we never really expected to win any of these games. I just kind of had that feeling. “

Now, I’m just a 2nd or 3rd place fantasy baseball league manager (starting Gagne on May 18, no less), but even I know that this is a problem of leadership and motivation. And by that I mean it’s a problem in that you can’t find either in the Milwaukee Brewers’ clubhouse. And by that I mean Ned Yost is making Gottsegen look like a managerial genius.

Which is to say that Ned Yost sucks at managing baseball.

History lesson:

For all their talent, the Milwaukee Brewers did not get off to a good start in 1982.

Though they had qualified for the post-season for the first time in franchise history the year before (and lost in a mini-series to the New York Yankees), they played lackluster baseball in April and May.

Some of the veterans were unhappy with manager Buck Rodgers, a smart baseball man but, as the season unfolded, clearly the wrong man to lead the Brewers.

The players grumbled privately that Rodgers was over-managing them. Money said Rodgers had too many “gimmicky” pick-off plays. Augustine said Rodgers’ style created tension on the team.“

He had a veteran club,” said Moore, “and he was doing so many things we thought were crazy.”

A stickler for rules, Rodgers got into it with Simmons over the latter’s refusal to wear a sports coat when the team traveled; Simmons preferred a black leather jacket.“

Buck and Teddy, they weren’t on the same page,” Money said. “I’m not saying players didn’t try their hardest. But that little extra spark wasn’t there for some of the guys.”

It all came to a head in Seattle on May 31. With the Brewers ahead, 4-3, Rodgers brought in Caldwell, a starter, to face the Mariners’ Bruce Bochte with a runner on second base and two out in the bottom of the ninth.

Bochte singled to drive in a run, and the Mariners went on to win, 5-4, in 11 innings.

“That’s probably the final nail in the coffin,” an angry Fingers shouted in the clubhouse after the defeat. “Does (Rodgers) think I can’t get a left-hander out? I’m getting paid good money to do that.”

The Brewers had sunk to 22-24 and were in sixth place, 71/2 games behind Boston in the AL Eastern Division. Clearly, they were underachieving. Dalton flew to Seattle and fired Rodgers the next day, after a 2-1 victory.

“On the way to Seattle, I spent a long time thinking about what it would mean to make a change,” said Dalton, now 73 and living in Carefree, Ariz. “I just finally decided we had more ability than the results showed.”

Rodgers, who went on to post a 520-499 record with Montreal and also managed the California Angels, was surprised when Dalton relieved him of his duties.

“Yes, I was,” said Rodgers, who will turn 64 on Friday and is retired and living in Newport Beach, Calif. “I thought we had a thing going. I had to make some tough decisions, and some of them were controversial. I was a good manager. I think I did things the way they had to be done.

“When they went on to be a championship team, I felt happy for them and I felt I had a part in it.”

Dalton replaced Rodgers with a polar opposite. The late Harvey Kuenn, then the team’s 51-year-old hitting coach and a laid-back father figure to many of the players, was the new manager.

“It was like a kid coming home, Dad is there and everything is under control,” Augustine said. “Harvey put a calm over everything.”

Spoiler alert: Harvey Kuehn took the Brewers to the World Series that year. Noted irony: Ted Simmons is the Brewers current bench coach, and God willing, their next manager.

But, enough about the Brewers. I’d like to end on a high note: Only in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be in first, second or third for most of the first 2 months of the season. Now, as my team refuses to hit a home run, and my pitching staff implodes, I realize that I was given a fleeting gift; a gift that would only be possible in a league as fucking bad as this one. So thanks for that everyone. Thanks for having such god awful teams that it makes my god awful team look halfway decent.