Short Hops: Unmanageable situations

Unmanageable Situations

With apologies to Joe Maddon (the right man for the right team at the right time), managers exert far less influence on a club’s fortunes than most fans think. Of the long-time gods of the profession — Bobby Cox, Jim Leyland, Joe Torre and Tony LaRussa — only the latter may have done a little better than the talent available in the clubhouse.

Cox made 14 consecutive postseasons until his pitchers got old and the front office folded up the wallet. He’s 16 games under .500 the last three years. Leyland’s Tigers were projected to be a powerhouse, yet freefell to the AL Central basement. Torre — whose club would have been eight or more games out in four of the other five divisions — couldn’t do a thing with the Dodgers until Manny Ramirez did it for him.

In his customarily profane way, Leyland articulated the accountability equilibrium between the puppeteer and the puppets when he admitted, “With the year we’ve had, I stunk. But I’ll tell you what, I’m not the f***** Lone Ranger.”

Pitching the Pitch Man

It was with tongue-in-cheek that Rays president Matt Silverman rued last week, “We don’t have anyone to throw out the ball for our first playoff game. MLB asked us who it’d be. We realized nobody in the history of the franchise had done anything to be worthy of the honor.” That, he knew all along, was not true. You won’t recognize the face or name of the guy who was chosen for the honors on Thursday, but he’s more than worthy.

In 1995, John Higgins — a St. Petersburg attorney who played a role in securing the expansion franchise — became the Rays’ first official employee. The club’s senior vice president and general counsel, he’s been the one constant (if publicly invisible) force in the team’s meteoric rise — a voice of reason and competence working behind the scenes as what could best be described as an administrative “superutilityman,” patching leaks in the dyke through many chaotic years.

Short Hops goes into hot stove hibernation after this week’s edition. Your columnist does so while momentarily removing his hat of objectivity to doff it to John Higgins, whom he is proud to call a friend.

HIT AND RUN

Short Hops’ recurring installment of slapdash observation and imprudent opinion:

There may be no “New York, New York” in the playoffs, but baseball still has those little-town blues. Three of the four postseason entries in each league are from major markets.

First baseman/outfielder Micah Hoffpauir drove in 100 runs in Triple-A this season. In 290 at-bats. The fewest ABs in a 100-rib major league season: 373 by Barry Bonds in 2004. Neither that performance nor his .342 AVG in 33 Cubs games was enough to earn Hoffpauir the final spot on their postseason roster, which went to Felix Pie.

Tampa Bay did not a start a pitcher all season who had celebrated his 26th birthday.

Attention Ryan Howard-for-NL MVP types: The local chapter of the BWAA voted for the Phillies team MVP and the winner was....Brad Lidge.

Is David Wright replacing A-Rod as the worm in The Big Apple? In an otherwise hot September for him, no Met gripped more down the stretch. On consecutive nights against the Cubs, he suffered ugly-looking strikeouts with a man in scoring position in walk-off situations. He finished with a .243 AVG with RISP, including .207 with multiple men in scoring position. Wright set the Mets RBI record with 124, but came to bat with 508 runners on base — 43 more than the pro-rated total of the average player.

Dusty Baker is the only manager who burns scented candles in his office. At all times. “I just like my office to smell good,” he explains.

With a loss on Sunday, Washington was a big winner, and with a win, Seattle was a big loser. The final-day results flip-flopped them for the first pick in next year’s draft, which now goes to the Nats.

The 2008 Rays ARE the 1969 Mets. Carlos Pena is Donn Clendenon. Jason Bartlett is Bud Harrelson. Eric Hinske is Ron Swoboda. B.J. Upton is Tommie Agee. Gil Hodges, however, would have looked like a pervert in those Joe Maddon specs.

QUOTABLES

“Wow, wow, wow, wow. I think if I had to describe that one, I would say that was gangsta. That was real gangsta.” — Jerry Manuel on Johan Santana’s heroic three-hit shutout on short rest to keep the Mets temporarily in the race.