July 5, 200322 yr From the SportingNews.com... Hilarious... Note To McKeon: No Crying in Baseball Today, MLB fan Steve Wasik explains why Jack McKeon's recent complaints about running up the score are ridiculous and even offensive. After Jack McKeon's whining session about Boston "trying to hard to win" when it had a large lead, his team came back the next game with eight runs in the last two innings in an improbable comeback. Was this because Boston, following McKeon's exceptional advice, laid off a little and gave the Marlins a chance? Ol' Jack should be more specific. At what point should the game be considered out of reach, and what should the team with the lead do? Not swing hard in order to prevent home runs? Not try to steal a base, forgetting that the baserunners have a low success rate these days anyway? McKeon complained about the Red Sox and their suicide squeeze. They didn't try one, of course, but in the absence of any real examples, McKeon had to speculate. I don't count the shallow hit that the Red Sox scored on, since that was probably done prior to the team getting together and agreeing on what would be considered legitimate help provided to the other team, and what would be considered not trying hard enough. Is this an opportunity to not run hard to first on a ground ball? Should the players be directed to "lay off" by the manager? Otherwise, the player might not be sure that it is the correct time, and he might worry that his manager is thinking he isn't trying hard. This reminds me of when Admin Bowa whined about the same thing a few years ago. Ironically, there were some exceptional comebacks around Bowa's whining binge as well. I believe the Pirates scored eight runs in the ninth in an exciting win. I have no respect for McKeon or Bowa. They complain even though what they really seem to want is for their teams to continue to try as hard as possible to come back, while demanding that the other teams lays off and give them a chance. It is funny how there are always big comebacks right about the same time that managers decide to complain. Not ha-ha funny, though. If I were an owner, I would fire such a manager the next day. I would not want a manager I did not respect. I want a manager who uses his postgame interview time to think positively, to talk about how it is just one game and that they'll get them next time, etc. I don't want one who uses his time to complain about how the other team didn't stop playing hard and didn't give his team a chance to come back. I have zero respect for those two "men."
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