At Last

A Web site gets its wish:

Fire Ed Wade.

It was official Monday afternoon.

Someone else gets blamed next.

In all of the Phloggery, one reports stands out. It begins with praise.

A good man was fired Monday, and we should take no personal joy in this, begins Shallow Center. By most accounts, Ed Wade acted with class while doing a tough job in a tough town. Except for the occasional run-in with a reporter, he kept his cool under trying circumstances, including tens of thousands of complete strangers calling for his job.

Then blogger Tom Durso gets on with the business of what went wrong. A taste:

His two managerial hires comprised a tyrant with an inflated sense of self and no people skills, and a Southern-fried players' manager who thinks a double-switch is something you use to turn on a light from two different walls. Neither man was successful.

Beerleaguer bellies up fast to the bar of public opinion:

Justified, overdue and smart, the Phillies have taken the first step in mending a broken relationship with fans and delivering a product capable of making the playoffs. Though the team made progress under Wade, including an 88-74 record this season, his record shows no playoff appearances in eight seasons as boss.

In terms of placating fans, the move couldn't be better PR, as season ticket holders and casual fans alike have been grumbling for Wade's head for years. In terms of baseball, Wade's legacy will be locking into over-reaching contracts and not being aggressive enough to make the right moves before the season and at the deadline.

Wade was overmatched as a general manager, squandered his resources and alienated fans. Simply put, he wasn't good enough, and the decision to replace him should have come sooner.

But the job is only half over for team president David Montgomery, charged with finding the right person capable of restoring Philadelphia to an elite baseball town and delivering a championship. Meanwhile, Phillies nation will wait to see who stays and who goes.

We'll Never Win Again -- can we take a moment to love the name of this Philacentric blog? --takes a headline from a favorite Pixies song, "Ed is Dead."

And now we're singing it all day long.

The Phillies fired Ed Wade! The Phillies fired Ed Wade! It's his fault somehow that Rollins' hit streak no longer matters!

He's gone! Yay!

But what's going to happen next year when the team still sucks and there isn't a crappy GM to blame? Oh no... Quick, Phillies! Hire someone horrible! We need a whipping boy! WE NEED A WHIPPING BOY!

Phanatic Phollow Up write:

fans in Philly are certainly doing the “Happy Happy/Joy Joy” dance. Wade had to be the most despised man in all of Philly sports.

Is that phor real?

The Good Phight creates a depressing graphic of return vs payroll for the team that has won the most games since 1993 to have not made the playoffs

Anybody know if there are any Billy Beane acolytes looking for work? Shallow Center asks hopefully.

Minutiae - "Ramblings of a pop culture moron" - has some ideas.

It's what happens next that will determine exactly how good a move it was. Elevating Ruben Amaro may be a smart move, but it isn't one that the season ticket holders will support. Brian Cashman has succeeded in New York (and will likely be available soon), but he won't be able to spend the kind of money that George Steinbrenner was willing to throw around.

I recommend Houston veteran (and former Hawk alum) Jerry Hunsicker. He's not the smart, young candidate like Cashman or Theo Epstein. He's a solid baseball man who knows how to put together a team. But even if Hunsicker is hired, it will be his first (and second and third) moves that determine if the hire was a good idea.

But for right now, I can only smile and say mission accomplished.

While everyone else gets all analytical and stuff, Balls, Sticks and Stuff zags:

I just checked with GoDaddy.com, and HireEdWade.com is still an available domain name.