Odd Philly magazine piece on Charlie Manuel

[Smasher_Sloan]

Your thoughts?

http://www.phillymag.com/articles/inside_the_mind_of_a_genius/

 

[dargan]

I liked that. Think it's a good article. Interesting stuff about Manuel. I know what it's like to be ridiculed for having a Southern accent. Good for Manuel. Sounds like a beast.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Charlie Manuel is one of the smartest and nicest baseball men you'll meet. He's suffered from every stereotype you can associate with him -- hick-sounding accent so he's dumb, old man so he's tired and not competitive, just wants his players to hit HRs so he doesn't know any strategy or how to run a pitching staff.

Idiots in Cleveland used to make fun of him for these things all the time. Charlie Manuel gets the last laugh.

 

[Elliotte Friedman]

You didn't like reading about the orgy?

Understand where you're coming from here, Smasher. There are some great anecdotes about him, but the piece comes across as fawning. It may be nine pages, but I'm not convinced we learn much about the guy other than he's friendly.

And the writer asking Berra for an autograph reveals he's a fanboy more than anything else.

 

[Double Down]

I really like Mathew Teague. I think he's exceptional. He's crazy talented.

This piece, though, was a little meh. I agree with Elliotte in that I'm not sure I know much about Charlie Manuel by the end of the piece.

The scene with Tom Gordon on the mound struck me as having forced "importance." Manager takes a reliever out. Slaps him on the butt. Pitcher nods. Not sure there's a deeper meaning here.

Some nice writing though.

 

[zebracoy]

The more surprising thing, to me, was the fact that it opens with the writer taking batting practice.

For some reason, I just couldn't get past that. It didn't work for me.