Sorry Charlie

Let me take this opportunity to apologize to our skipper, Charlie Manuel. I must confess when he first came in I had no faith. You see, I had watched Terry Francona leave and lead the cursed Red Sox to a championship and in doing so create a beautiful ending to the film, "Fever Pitch." I also saw Larry Bowa come in, yell a lot, and hurt Scott Rolen's heart. With all of these things beating down my faith in the Phils, you can see why I was less then welcoming when we hired a guy, who I thought sounded like the original narrator for "The Dukes of Hazard."

Charlie arrived to a team in 2005 that hadn't been to the playoffs since 1993. His first 2 seasons, ended similarly to how Bowa's seasons ended, within a few games of the playoffs. One difference was that Charlie saw the end of more games live then Bowa who had to watch from the locker room after being ejected. This team couldn't finish things and I thought it was Charlie's fault. It turns out, much like me at a Medieval Times, the team was just immature.

Charlie was able to get the team focused in 2007 and lead them to their 1st playoff appearance in 14 years. Some would argue that it had to do more with the Mets. What did they do? Let's just say that drawing a Y inside an N that year was just as universal as putting your hands to your throat. In the last 3 years, we have seen the Phils win the Division, go 2 of 3 in the NLCS, and 1 of 2 in the World Series. They did this in spite of crazy injuries, horrendous slumps, and fans getting tasered (which I was for).

How he hasn't won Manager of the Year in any of these past 4 years, I will never know. Especially last year when he made all of the right moves throughout the season to keep this slumping, injury ridden team moving. Not only that, he even lead the NL All Star team to victory. Does this man's leadership know no bounds?

Charlie, please find it in your heart to forgive me for not only doubting, but blaming you for this team's early woes. He is looking for a contract extension, and unless they think he should be asking for more, I'm not sure why the powers that be are taking so long on it. My only message for them is this: