In 96, many baseball fans and writers still held on to the belief that Torre was a horrible manager, and judging from his prior stints as bench general, who could blame them? He proved them wrong by being a calming influence on the highly paid Yankees and a great mentor to a very young Derek Jeter. I think that explains him winning it in 96. For those reasons, he deserved it.
In 98, wasn't he battling ass cancer? If correct about the timeframe, then it was at best a sympathy vote and at worst they didn't want to flat out give the award to Johnny Oats. But I could be wrong.
"What you don't understand, you can make mean anything." -Palahniuk
Bobby Cox gets fucked over as usual... Everyone at the beginning of the year was predicting doom and gloom for the Atlanta Braves, who had the same offense they had last year, and were down 2 aces from their rotation. They went out and won 100 games. But by that point everyone had typically ignored the fact that they had EVER suggested This Was Atlanta's Year To Fail and were calling it Business As Usual.
I wish someone out there would realize that Atlanta doesn't QUITE have the payroll to be a team that buys 100 wins every year. They earn it through their discipline, but nobody ever notices, despite being surprises doing it every single year.
Originally posted by skorpio17I wonder who the anti-Matsui Boston writer voted for? He must hate Little at least a little more than Torre.
Well the way I understand it is that since Boston is such a big market they have several writers who get to vote, therefore each one only votes for one award and it rotates every year. Meaning the guy who left Matsui off the balot only votes for ROY this year and not Manager of the Year. But maybe whoever voted instead hates Little although i'm not sure why. I'd love to have a manager that could get my team into the League Championship.
Originally posted by JayJayDean Torre'll NEVER win as long as he's managing the Yankees.
Nope. Never. So who won the award in 1998? And who split the award with Johnny Oates in 96?
I said "will never", not "has never". Now that the Yankees payroll is SO much higher than everyone else's I don't think he'll ever win as long as some team that was picked to finished poorly finishes above .500. Heck, you know the next time the Tigers sniff .500 whoever is their manager has a lock on winning.
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I think that's the whole problem with a system that rewards a .500 team for not losing more than half their games played.
Even by the criteria of exceeding expectations, except for Pena, I don't see how any of the AL's top 4 managers have done that. The Twins and A's won their divisions the prior year and should've been expected to repeat. The Red Sox finished in second place for the umpteenth year in a row...big deal. Anyone who would bet against the Braves winning their division should also have their heads checked.
Regarding Torre, if it's all about the money let's just give the award to the highest paid manager in each league because if they are getting the most money, they must be doing the best job.[/sarcasm]
Originally posted by cfgbBobby Cox gets fucked over as usual... Everyone at the beginning of the year was predicting doom and gloom for the Atlanta Braves, who had the same offense they had last year, and were down 2 aces from their rotation. They went out and won 100 games. But by that point everyone had typically ignored the fact that they had EVER suggested This Was Atlanta's Year To Fail and were calling it Business As Usual.
How can you say Bobby Cox got fucked over as usual? That man is the definition of doing just enough to keep your job, nothing more. How many division titles in a row have they won? 12? How many World Series appearances? Come on. Atlanta is a reputable franchise with deep pockets - no, they don't spend 180 mil like the Yanks do, but they're not poor either - and they never make good on their regular season numbers. That, to me, is a picture of a manager who only gets enough to get by out of his players. And while I realize that these awards are based on regular season, the fact that the Braves consistently blow it in the playoffs tells me that the 100 win seasons are a reflection of the players and not because of anything added by Bobby Cox.
As per ESPN.com (sports.espn.go.com), Reardon's been charged with armed robbery, for allegedly holding up a jewelry store. For some reason, I thought he was still on the HOF ballot, but he hasn't been since 2000 (baseballhalloffame.org).