March 23, 2006

Now, Back to Loathing Bowden

Well, thank goodness that's over. Finding myself siding with Trader Jim is not the kind of irony I need in my life. Soriano has now trotted out to left for two consectutive games, and he's already a better outfielder than Manny Ramirez. Now I can go back to focusing on the real problem with this franchise, GM Jim "Fire" Bowden.

I admire Soriano for swallowing his pride, doing what was best for the team, and making a move he manifestly and adamantly didn't want to make. I'm legitimately looking forward to having him in the lineup this season, though I still hope a general manager other than Bowden can move him at the trade deadline for some good minor league prospects. In the meantime, best of luck A-Sor, I promise you won't hear a boo out of me this season (at least until your hack-happy .284 OBP finally pushes me over the edge.)

The problem here, of course, is the potential to spin this so that Jim Bowden comes out of this looking like a genius. Bowden: "The Man Who Tamed Soriano!" Bowden: "Defender of Management Perogatives!" Bowden: "Man With the Golden Leatherpants!" What rookie baseball owner wouldn't want a hard-charging executive stooge like Bowden riding herd on those pesky "employees"? A competent one, but that might be too much to hope for.

While it was almost certainly $10 million dollars and the lure of impending free agency that induced A-Sor to end his sit-in, you better believe that Bowden wants (and needs) the credit. Nothing more than pure dumb luck rescued "Fire" Bowden this time. Let's hope the (hypothetical) new owner recognizes that before he has to experience JimBo's management style first-hand.

3 comments:

Brandon said...

Why, I just remembered something. Do you know who the owner was who hired Jim Bowden to the Reds job in 1992? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Why, it was MARGE SCHOTT!!!

And we know what kind of loser owner she was. Then came Carl Lindner and he put up with Bowden's crap for 4 years. And he was a terrible owner, too. So I hate to say it, but you're entirely right that a moron owner might just keep him around. *Shudder*

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Bote Man said...

The Cy Young award has been properly renamed the Walter Johnson award.

Go J.P.!!!