I'm not really sure why this is even news right now, but...whatever.

 

JUPITER, Fla. -- Florida Marlins officials were unhappy to hear that their manager last year, Joe Girardi, gave rival pitcher Jon Lieber helpful tips during the season.

 

Lieber said his season with the Philadelphia Phillies turned around shortly after he was roughed up by the Marlins last July 31, and he credits a phone call from Girardi, a former major league catcher. They played together with the Chicago Cubs from 2000-02.

 

"He just mentioned that the hitters said everything that was coming in was just very flat," Lieber told the Philadelphia Daily News. "I wasn't on top of the ball like I should have been."

 

Both teams contended for the NL wild-card berth, and Lieber beat the Marlins twice in September.

 

Florida general manager Admin Beinfest declined to comment Tuesday, but another team official said the front office was angry about the matter. The official requested anonymity because Beinfest wouldn't comment.

 

There's no indication the front office knew last year about Girardi's conversation with Lieber. Girardi's relationship with management quickly soured in his only season with Florida, and he was fired in October -- then chosen NL Manager of the Year.

 

Marlins left-hander Dontrelle Willis shrugged off the comments about Girardi helping Lieber.

 

"What are you going to do now?" Willis said. "He doesn't even work here anymore. You can't dock his pay.

 

"I don't think it's a big deal. If we lost the wild card by two games, OK. But there are so many different other factors."

 

Left-hander Scott Olsen agreed.

 

"If you would have told me that last July when it happened, I probably would say a little more," Olsen said. "But it doesn't mean anything right now."

 

The Marlins finished 10 games behind NL wild-card winner Los Angeles and seven games behind Philadelphia.

 

Girardi's agent didn't return a call seeking comment.

 

http://www.myfoxal.com/myfox/pages/Sports/...mp;pageId=6.1.1

He's a loser...glad the control freak is gone.

Interesting comments from Olsen and Willis

It's a non-story.

Interesting comments from Olsen and Willis

 

The PBP had a little better article today on this. They said Gary Tuck also called Lieber. And had another comment from DTrain.

 

"You've still got to go out there and execute. You can have all the stuff in the world, but if you don't go out there and execute it dosen't matter. I only wish I could get that phone call. You can put my phone number in the paper if anybody wants to help me with my stuff."

Interesting comments from Olsen and Willis

"You've still got to go out there and execute. You can have all the stuff in the world, but if you don't go out there and execute it dosen't matter. I only wish I could get that phone call. You can put my phone number in the paper if anybody wants to help me with my stuff."

 

I have a man crush on The Train. :notworthy

I have a man crush on The Train. :notworthy

 

LOL...same here D-Train is THE MAN :notworthy

Trader Jack:

 

McKeon on fraternizing: The incident of former Marlins manager Joe Girardi giving pointers to help Phillies right-hander Jon Lieber has drawn a lot of attention.

 

On Wednesday, former Marlins manager Jack McKeon had this to say to 560 WQAM's Hank Goldberg: "I would never have helped anybody on the opposition. Regardless if they were a good friend of mine, they would have to wait until the season is over. Or if I was going to be managing against them next year, I wasn't about to tell him anything. Because if I was successful in handling this guy or beating this guy, I certainly wasn't going to give him an opportunity to make a correction and turn around and beat me.

 

"I've seen situations where so-and-so is pitching against us and we're getting his pitches and he's tipping them off in some way or another. And all of a sudden, the word spreads around the bench, and, all of a sudden, three or four weeks later one of his buddies on our team, that now has heard about it, goes and tells the guy. To me it's an unwritten rule: You don't tell the opposition anything."

This whole thing is completely ridiculous. As I understand it Girardi / Lieber type conversations happen all the time so I don't know why the Girardi haters choose to single out Girardi about it and furthermore I find it laughable that the Girardi haters give Girardi so much credit for helping out Lieber but don't give him any credit for helping out our own players.

I'm in the Jack McKeon camp, but enough already. I think this has been beaten into the ground enough and like Polo said all it really does is inflame feelings on both sides of the Girardi debate.

This whole thing is completely ridiculous. As I understand it Girardi / Lieber type conversations happen all the time so I don't know why the Girardi haters choose to single out Girardi about it and furthermore I find it laughable that the Girardi haters give Girardi so much credit for helping out Lieber but don't give him any credit for helping out our own players.

:thumbup

Girardi was also the lone gunman on the grassy knoll!!!!

 

get off him.....he's gone...you Girardi haters won....better hope Fredi wins like he did.

hell I'm a "Girardi hater" and I don't think this is a big deal

 

it's a non story imo

Trader Jack sure doesn't sugar coat it. He is very old school. I agree with him, but I think it is not worth to lose any sleep over this.