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What the Hell is Going on with Pete Mackanin and Odubel Herrera?
By Jim Adair
Published:
While we’re all having our hopes and dreams crushed by the Eagles, the Phillies are still playing. Did you know that? Well, they are. And rookie Odubel Herrera, who never played above double-A ball before this year, is having one of the best Rule 5 seasons in recent history. But that don’t mean shit to newly-minted manager Pete Mackanin, because Mackanin benched his ass on Sunday.
Why exactly? Because Herrera was being a crybaby:
“Boys play Little League. Men play Major League Baseball. We will not pout. We will not feel sorry for ourselves. If you want to, then you don’t belong here. He had to learn a lesson. To me, he’s been pouting for a few days, and I just wanted to make sure that he gets the message.
This game is easy to play when everything’s going your way. When you’re hitting and you’re pitching and you’re winning games, it’s easy. Character comes out when you’re really struggling. What kind of person are you? That’s what we talk about with the [pitchers]. We push them to see if they can get over a hump to get out of their own jams. You cannot afford to pout or feel sorry for yourself at this level. You’ve got to play like a man.”
It can’t be easy to be an unheralded young player, probably playing the best baseball of your career (in the longest season of your career) and busting your ass for a potentially 100-loss team. Still, if there’s a little crying in baseball, a benching might be in order. But is publicly questioning the manhood of one of the only bright spots on your team the best move, instead of keeping that kind of thing in-house? Probably not, and you just end up sounding like Jimmy Dugan, or Wolf Stansson.
Anyway, the Phils extended Mackanin today [editor’s note: with good reason] and he’ll be around for another year.
When he's not writing about sports here or ranting about them on Twitter, Jim is probably watching X-Files on Netflix or drinking a beer somewhere. Jim has nothing against hockey, it's just not his style. He once met Duce Staley at a Sixers game.