Another Weaver story, but this one comes from Jim Palmer. Palmer said Weaver's idea of a mound conference was yelling at him "Hey, are you f**king trying?"
Earl Weaver said his job was to make up the lineup card and get out of the way. He also said his job was to not screw up all the wonderful work the front office had done the winter before. I don't think he fully believed these things, but they were good lines.
The impact of the manager is the most intangible of intangibles. But I do think Tracy has to be doing some stuff right for the team to turn it around the way it has.
Agreed, but we did have one or two people (JoeB for sure) pointing out that our Pythagorean record was better than the actual record and that Breslow's offseason moves were actually pluses, and that it was weird that this wasn't translating to wins.
BTW did anybody read Abreu's translation of what he was yelling after his home run that put the Sox ahead in that last game against the Rays: "Are you crazy?"
Love it.
I know you're not 100% serious, but just for a moment picture a rust-caked Story striding to the plate in mid-August and tell me you're not shuddering at the human carnage you're about to behold.
Story seems like he might be right on the verge of not being able to hit major league fastballs any more. The combination of age and injury and inactivity sure doesn't help.