Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
October 17, 2003
Fire Grady?

Jim Caple thinks so.


The Red Sox clubhouse was mostly silence after the eventual loss, with several players choking back tears. Pedro, who showed little character after the Game 3 melee last weekend by ducking the media, showed a great deal of it Thursday night by standing as tall as his 5-10 frame allows and taking full responsibility for what happened.

"I wouldn't put Grady on the spot like that whatsoever,'' Pedro said. "I am the ace of the team. I wasn't thinking about pitch counts then. That is no time to say I'm tired. There is no reason to blame Grady. He doesn't play the game. We do. I do. If you want to blame someone, blame me. I walk out there. I'm responsible for the pitches I make in the middle of the game.

"Grady did a great job throughout the season. I don't think it's fair to blame Grady for the decision made out there.''

Yes, it is. No starting pitcher as good and as competitive as Pedro is ever going to say he is tired and isn't strong enough to continue. That's why you hire managers to make the decision for them.


I agree with that last paragraph. I was listening to a report on my local NPR station this morning. They had a reporter at the game, and she interviewed Sox fans as they came out, and the consensus was that Little should be fired.
(If the report comes on-line, I'll link to it.)

Firing someone is pretty harsh. Grady made a bad decision, but he thought he was making a good one. At some point, Theo Epstein needs to sit Grady down and go through that inning with him, get his thought processes, get his reasoning clear. Only at that point can the Red Sox really make the decision. But Little has a lot of explaining to do.


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