I was driving in my car with kids being (reasonably) good lil kids, when I turned to the AM radio to check on the traffic, got the news and what did I hear?
Drayton McLane, unhappy with the 0-6 road trip, finally decided to fire Cecil Cooper.
I screamed YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!! so loudly I shocked the kids into dead silence – why youda thought Ah had done won me a date with Bradley Awesomeness AND Grady Sizemore AND Corey Patterson (yes, I know, lousy ballplayer but who cares).
I would say YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE HAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! but I think Tanya Tucker said it best “But it’s a lil too late to do the right thing now…”
Yes, I do remember how happy I was 2 years ago when Phil Garner went byebye and I hopeHOPED that Coop would be better, and he was even worse than Phil. I have absolutely no idea what finally pushed Drayton, maybe the number of letters/emails he was getting demanding that Cooper be removed or they wouldn’t renew season tickets, maybe his remarks about Janish and Blum, maybe his absolute refusal to play Maysonet or Manzella, or maybe Lance and Roy went to him and said they would publically demand a trade?
It’s not as if Drayton had like NOOOOOOO idea how little respect Cooper had in his own clubhouse (he should have gotten THAT one figured out about the time of the Shawn Chacon debacle last year) and it’s not like he didn’t know how the players felt about him at the end of the year. But SOMEthing finally got to him – and I hope that Dave Clark does a better job managing than he does coaching third base.
UPDATE: Just saw the lineup for tonight’s game and it has the same Old Guys that have been lousy all year and NO rooks. So much for change. Well, no change in lineup. We’ll see if Clark has the same bullpen non-sense.
Tags: Houston Astros
Free at Last, Free at Last -
I will always remember the date on my calendar September 21st, 2009 will be a date of celeration in my house.
Cooper wasn’t a good manager, and I’m glad he’s gone, but—the current mess was started by Drayton McLane, Tal Smith, and Tim Purpura. They are the ones responsible for poor drafts, bad trades, a high payroll, and a bear bones minor league system. (I’ve been watching the Astros so long that I remember Spec Richardson, and the only reason that Purpura isn’t considered the worst GM in Astros history is because he wasn’t allowed to hang around as long.)
So Cooper is the scapegoat, and Drayton and Tal hope that his firing will take some of the heat from fans off of them. The truth is that no one could have won many games with this team.
I’m not an Ed Wade fan, but I hope he’ll get to hire his own guy to manage and run a couple more drafts. If things aren’t getting better by 2011 or so, then Wade can take a hike too.
My congratulations to you Lisa. You were the first person I thought of when I saw the news. The second was Michael Bourn and the rest of the team was third.