Jim Williams, The Examiner
Oct 3, 2006 4:00 AM (2 hrs 16 mins ago)
Current rank: # 2 of 5,769 articles
WASHINGTON - We know Frank Robinson will not be back as manager of the Washington Nationals in 2007. But who will be the manager?
Well, for commentary on topics such as this, there is no better source than odd couple of Steve Phillips and Jon Kruk from ESPN’s “Baseball Tonight.”
They were more than happy to offer suggestions for Nats President Stan Kasten and General Manager Jim Bowden as to who should replace Frank.
Kruk’s take: “I think that the Nationals have a really good core of great young players like Ryan Zimmerman, Nick Johnson, Felipe Lopez, Austin Kearns and Brian Schneider. So I think you need a young guy who can relate to the players like Joe Girardi, who is likely to be fired by Florida because the Marlins front office seems to have a problem with him for reasons that I simply don’t understand. He has done a great job down there on fundamentals and the guys do not make as many mistakes.
“They love playing for him and he got a great deal out of the young players. He is a Joe Torre guy and a great fit for Washington.”
Phillips has a different take: “I know Stan and Jim and they like to have an established teacher in the dugout. Lou Piniella is someone that both Kasten and Bowden like and he is great with young players. Stan wants a Bobby Cox kind of a guy Lou could be that guy.
“Another guy could be Dusty Baker, who has a history with Kasten. I just think that Stan and Jim will go with an established man who can be a teacher and a calming force as the Nationals builds for the future.”
No matter who the Nationals choose, both Kruk and Phillips agreed the time to act is now; they need to move quickly so the team does not fall behind.
Ripken to TBS
Cal Ripken, Jr. seems ready to finally enter the broadcasting business as part of the TV team for TBS’ new “Sunday Game of the Week” starting in 2007.
At this point it is not clear whether Ripken would join Chip Carey in the broadcast booth or if he would be part of the network’s pre-game studio show.
Play ball
Here is the TV lineup for the MLB playoffs through Friday.
Tuesday
1 p.m.: Oakland at Minnesota, ESPN
4: St. Louis at San Diego, ESPN
8: Detroit at New York Yankees, FOX 5/45
Wednesday
1 p.m.: Oakland at Minnesota, ESPN
4: Los Angeles at New York Mets, ESPN
8: Detroit at New York Yankees, ESPN
Thursday
4 p.m.: St. Louis at San Diego, ESPN
8: Los Angeles at New York Mets, FOX 5/45
Friday
4 p.m.: Minnesota at Oakland, ESPN
8: New York at Detroit, ESPN
*Complete radio coverage on XM Radio and ESPN Radio.
Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer.
Examiner
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment