Philling a Need

The Phillies answered the first of many off-season questions today when they signed manager Charlie Manuel to a two-year extension. Manuel, who is 63 years old, will be the skipper until at least the end of the 2009 season, and his contract has a club option for 2010.

At the end of next season, Pat Gillick will step down as General Manager of the Phillies, and so there is no guarantee that Manuel will be the choice of the next GM. But considering Gillick’s successor is probably coming from within the organization, it’s a good bet Charlie will see the end of this deal.

And I never thought I’d hear myself say this (or even watch myself write this, as the case may be) but it’s the right decision. Even if his press conferences cause my ears to bleed.

In the most recent Philscast, I compared Manuel to Danny Ozark. Ozark was the manager of the Phillies from 1973 to 1979, won three straight division titles, and led the team to it’s highest win total in franchise history in ‘76 and ‘77 (101). He was also an idiot, and he once said that the Phillies still had a chance to win the division, even though they were seven games out with only six to play. You just can’t make that stuff up.

I stand by my comparison between Manuel and Ozark, because they have a lot in common. Strategically, Charlie is not the sharpest tool in the shed. We all know that now. And yet Manuel is the first Phillies skipper to lead the team to three straight winning seasons in his first three years since Pat Moran did it from 1915 to 1918. He is one of only seven managers to ever lead the Phillies to a division title. He is the second fastest to 250 victories as a Phillies manager (Moran, again). And his .539 career winning percentage is eighth-best among the 30 active managers in Major League Baseball. It hasn’t been Ozark’s run quite yet. But then again, it took Ozark until his fourth season before the run began. Manuel is only in his third year.

Eventually, Ozark was famously replaced when Dallas Green came rumbling down from up above in the front office, and managed the team to their only World Series victory. Why did that happen, considering the Phillies were in the middle of the most successful stretch in the history of their franchise? And I don’t just mean they were dominant. Ozark did in three years what the franchise had never done in the 94 years before that combined: He won three division titles.

It happened because the decision was made by Paul Owens, then GM of the Phils, that the team was winning in spite of Ozark, and not because of him. The result, as I said, was a championship.

So isn’t it possible, considering how promising this young group of players looks, that Manuel isn’t really the reason for the team’s success?

I guess we won’t really know unless a few years from now, in 2010, the team declines the option on Manuel’s contract, hires Jim Leyland, and wins the World Series.

But for now, I go back to what I said in the beginning of this rant. This was the right decision. Because in one regard, Charlie Manuel is incomparable to Danny Ozark.

Ozark never had his team the way Manuel does. These guys will kill for him. Ask anyone on the team, and they’ll tell you the same thing. They love this guy.

Just listen to what Jayson Werth said a few weeks ago before a game with the Nationals. Werth hadn’t started the series before against the Cardinals.

“You can go through the mental shutdown thing (when you’re not starting),” Werth said. “He could just tell it was still on my mind. That was just something to help me get over it and get ready for Washington, because at some point I was going to be hitting with a good chance of the game being on the line. The talk lasted a minute, but I went on with my day and didn’t think about St. Louis. It put a smile on my face and changed my perspective.”

Werth, you’ll remember, hit the pinch-hit homer that brought the Phillies back into the game; one they would eventually win 7-6.

Or how about what Aaron Rowand said just before the playoffs?

“There’s a lot more to him than what everybody gets to see,” Rowand said. “He doesn’t showboat the fact that he’s doing this and that. He’s the leader of this group. The manager is the key and it’s not just pushing buttons during the game. He does a great job communicating and doesn’t need notoriety for it.”

Rowand is one of the key free agents – if not the key free agent – this winter for the Phils. Having Manuel, one of Rowand’s best friends in the game, will only help the team in their quest to persuade him to stay.

These guys love their manager. There’s no other way to say it. Ozark may have had the talent, but his coaching didn’t get them any further than they would have gotten on their own.

For Manuel, it’s a different story. He’s kept this team together through injuries and losing streaks. He kept them together well enough for them to win their division for the first time in 14 years. And now it was the front office’s turn. By bringing back Manuel, they are the ones keeping things together for at least two more years. They are the ones giving this magical group a chance to finish what they started.