The Brewster

If there was ever a first-ballot Hall of Famer, it's Tony LaRussa.

Wow, so with Francona and Guillen out, does that make Leyland the second-longest tenured manager in the bigs now behind Scioscia? That can't be right...can it??

Maybe Charlie Manuel too? Can't remember exactly when he was hired...

I refuse to recognize Ron Gardenhire and the Minnesota Twins, btw...

Good riddance, "idiot".

Who is "Salas"?

Spitulski. Unless it's the Cardinals "closer."

Managers and their tenures as of the end of the 2011 season. Leyland is fourth of those remaining, tied with Maddon.

St. Louis Tony LaRussa 16
Anaheim Mike Scioscia 12
Minnesota Ron Gardenhire 10
Boston Terry Francona 8
Philadelphia Charlie Manuel 7
Detroit Jim Leyland 6
Tampa Bay Joe Maddon 6
San Diego Bud Black 5
San Francisco Bruce Bochy 5
Texas Ron Washington 5
Cincinnati Dusty Baker 4
New York AL Joe Girardi 4
Colorado Jim Tracy 2.72
Cleveland Manny Acta 2
Houston Brad Mills 2
Kansas City Ned Yost 1.78
Arizona Kirk Gibson 1.51
Baltimore Buck Showalter 1.35
Chicago NL Mike Quade 1.23
Atlanta Fredi Gonzalez 1
Los Angeles Don Mattingly 1
Milwaukee Ron Roenicke 1
New York NL Terry Collins 1
Pittsburgh Clint Hurdle 1
Seattle Eric Wedge 1
Toronto John Farrell 1
Oakland Bob Melvin 0.61
Florida Jack McKeon 0.56
Washington Davey Johnson 0.51
Chicago AL Don Cooper 0.01

I used to respect Larussa but over the years I've learned to see him as a manipulative, narcissistic idiot. I think he tarnished his legacy later on in his career. Retiring right after winning the World Series is typically manipulative Larussa BS to me.

I also think it's not that big a deal to win the playoffs. The Phillies were the best team over 162 games. Then they lose a minuscule 5 game series 3 games to 2 and thats supposed to prove the Cardinals are better. Thats absurd. They win 12 games more than St. Louis over 162 games and then at the end St. Louis wins 1 more game out of 5 and St. Louis is considered the better team. The system to determine a champion is very flawed I think.

There is a big difference between determining the best team and determining the champion. They are often the same, but certainly not always. I would say this is true in pretty much every sport except those that are judged, and even there the best athletes can have a bad day.

blake wrote:I used to respect Larussa but over the years I've learned to see him as a manipulative, narcissistic idiot. I think he tarnished his legacy later on in his career. Retiring right after winning the World Series is typically manipulative Larussa BS to me.

I also think it's not that big a deal to win the playoffs. The Phillies were the best team over 162 games. Then they lose a minuscule 5 game series 3 games to 2 and thats supposed to prove the Cardinals are better. Thats absurd. They win 12 games more than St. Louis over 162 games and then at the end St. Louis wins 1 more game out of 5 and St. Louis is considered the better team. The system to determine a champion is very flawed I think.

The way soccer in Europe works is way better. 3 points for a win, 1 point for a tie, 0 for a loss. Play every team in the league twice. Once at home and once away. In the end whoever has the most points is crowned champ. Beautiful system.

bschr682 wrote:
The way soccer in Europe works is way better. 3 points for a win, 1 point for a tie, 0 for a loss. Play every team in the league twice. Once at home and once away. In the end whoever has the most points is crowned champ. Beautiful system.

Yeah that sounds better. I like the original system that baseball had. Two leagues NL and AL with no divisions. Whoever wins the most wins the league. And then the NL plays the AL in a 7 game series. It makes no sense to give the 4th best team in the league a chance to win the league just by winning a 5 and then 7 game series.

Salas that Spuliski clown who quit on us?

bschr682 wrote: The way soccer in Europe works is way better. 3 points for a win, 1 point for a tie, 0 for a loss. Play every team in the league twice. Once at home and once away. In the end whoever has the most points is crowned champ. Beautiful system.

I agree that this system is elegant and successful. However, it only works because of the number of ties you have in soccer. Without the ties, it is still nothing more than "highest number of wins."

LaRussa seemed old and almost uninterested in the Series vs the Rangers. Esp the botched telephone calls (really?).

Playing 162 games and then having a best of 5 wild card series is STUPID. At least they changed it to a 7-game LCS, which used to be best of 5. For the longest time, i've been against baseball shortening its season, but now I am sorta for it, given inclimate weather in late October. Plus baseball and/or the post-season is supposed to expand even more? wtf?

The NHL has all its playoffs in a 7-game series (I think), but then the Stanly Cup Playoffs last like three months...

(edited NFL to NHL)

They're trying to get more money obviously. They're going to add yet another wild card. If 10-15 teams are still in the hunt as opposed to 3-4 it generates a lot more revenue. It makes the sport more of a farce but they make more money.

It's more exciting to the casual fan having playoffs and wild cards but at the same time the sport loses integrity and becomes kind of a circus where a 5 game series decides things after you play 162 games.

Theres something ridiculous about dominating for 162 games and then having your season end quickly after losing a 5 game series to a wild card team. Any team in baseball can beat any other team in a five game series.

Personally i think baseball is a sport that doesn"t need a postseason. Or maybe just a world series. Al team with the most wins vs Nl team with the most wins and get rid of this division nonsense.

In one of my fantasy baseball leagues, I did just that: got rid of the 6-team, three-round "championship tournament" and said, look folks, the best team is the team that plays the best all season.

Of course, this does dampen enthusiasm for teams not in contention for first place. But since it is a keeper league, it should be okay in the long run.