Sites and Sounds Of The NL East

Hello again everyone from the balmy regions of central South Carolina, where I’ve just returned from smooth sailing on Lake Marion. If only the sailing had been so smooth for the Braves and their bats so hot, I would have written about their Friday night game against the Padres. But how many times can you write about an offense racking up such measly hit totals without it sounding like a broken record. So, when I saw so many interesting things happening in our division, I thought I’d point out a few of them to you, along with some links to even more of the action!

Dateline: Washington, D.C.

The juiciest action is coming out of our nation’s capital. In rotating rounds of “he said, she said”, it seems to me that the current leader is Jim Riggleman. Riggleman, who resigned as manager of the Washington Nationals on Thursday night, has maintained that he only asked for a dialog on a contract extension beyond this year. The GM of the Nationals, Mike Rizzo, maintains that Riggleman issued an ultimatum, essentially saying that he was quitting if he wasn’t granted an extension before the club left on its road trip. Riggleman believed that the club’s refusal to even discuss the matter proved that he wasn’t in the club’s long-term plan. When the announcement came down that the club was hiring its “special assistant”, Davey Johnson, as manager effective Monday, that seemed to lend credence to Riggleman’s position. I guess he really could feel the hot breath on his shoulder! Here’s a great place to read and hear more on the subject. Too bad for Riggleman that he chose to turn the hot breath he felt into the scorched earth of his career, as the odds of him ever getting another shot at managing probably dropped to near zero when he chose to quit in mid-season.

Dateline: New York, NY

In the news from the second dysfunctional team in our division is their closer, Francisco Rodriguez, sometimes known as K-Rod. When not arguing with teammates or fighting with family members, K-Rod has managed to remain relatively effective in his role as closer, even though his stuff, as evidenced by the velocity of his fastball, has been in decline for at least two seasons. Further, he has an option on his contract that vests for $17 million+ next season if he finishes at least 55 games this season, which he is on pace to do for the Mets. Yet, he has now gone on record as saying that he’d accept a role with another team as a setup man, so long as that team is a contender. Just how bad is the situation in NY? Is Rodriguez playing an unusual angle? Who knows, but see if you can decide for yourself, starting here.

Dateline: Miami, FL

In our final stop of our dysfunctional tour, we have the Florida Marlins hiring 80 year old “Trader” Jack McKeon as manager. McKeon, who stated that he’d had enough of managing when he “retired” the last time five years ago, started his tenure by benching Hanley Ramirez for his failure to hustle; why does this sound familiar? Now there are rumblings that this is yet another Jeffrey Loria smoke screen, designed to distract the public from the uproar over his taking of the Miami government to the cleaners over the financing of the new baseball stadium there. Read more about the whole tawdry affair here.

And, as a footnote, I vote that going forward all sportswriters retire the word “retire” from our vocabulary when it comes to athletes, managers, and coaches. Obviously, the word no longer means anything to them, or at least it certainly no longer means what it says in the dictionary. All in favor, please click the Facebook “like” button for this article.

And, by the way, GO BRAVES!