WasWatching.com

I grew up in South Jersey, watching Larry Bowa as a firebrand, slick-fielding shortstop for the Philadelphia Phillies. In fact, he retired with both single-season and career records for the best fielding percentage among major-league shortstops.

It was not too long ago (2001) that Bowa was named NL Manager of the Year. Perhaps the Yankees are remiss in not having invited him to interview for their (overdue) vacancy in addition to Girardi, Mattingly, & Pena.....

Personally, I would like to see Bowa reprise his '04 role as analyst on ESPN's Baseball Tonight, where he proved to be remarkably articulate and insightful. (Traits not emulated by his replacement, fellow Phillie veteran John Kruk.)

Bowa was a great coach, but I shudder to think of him as Yankee manager. I know a lot of Phillie fans and they all came to despise him as Phillies manager. He had a tendency to call out his best players and let them hang out to dry. As a result, the Phillies had to take pennies on the dollar for a great player like Scott Rolen.

Comments from Steve Goldman:

"The best a manager can do (read carefully Steve) is get his team to the playoffs. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, most seasons, and even the vast majority of games, don't turn on whether the manager called for a bunt or if he brought in Mike Myers in the sixth inning instead of Kyle Farnsworth. The bulk of them are resolved according to which team gets a three-run homer in the third at the same time that their starter is giving them six good innings. That's really it. The manager's primary impact is in selecting that starter, putting together a lineup capable of having that big inning, and fostering an atmosphere of professionalism and commitment in which those things are more likely to take place. If the manager takes you to the playoffs and Chien-Ming Wang gets blown out twice in a five game series and your hitters fall before the awesome power of Paul Byrd, what the heck is the manager supposed to do? Waive his magic hammer at the sky and call down the thunder to smite the opposition? "

And this on the new guy:

"Unless the new guy gets a better offer than Torre did, such as a two-year guarantee (which would underscore the organization's true lack of interest in retaining Torre), the writing is on the wall at the outset: the minimum satisfactory result for 2008 is making the ALCS. Anything less than that and maybe you lack sufficient motivation to do the job, or you deserve a pay cut."

One thing everyone says about donnie baseball is character -- do you think he's going to fall for this nest of vipers? Already his coaches are leaving, if the Bowa report is correct.

Every day that passes, it looks more and more like those 1980 Yankees...

Every day that passes, it looks more and more like those 1980 Yankees...
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The ones managed by Howser?