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Friday, June 24, 2011
Replacement-level manangers
Poz talks about Riggleman, and says, in support OF him:
1. A manager who had a .444 winning percentage with three teams was hired as an interim manager for the sad sack Washington Nationals. His team played .440 baseball the rest of the way, which was moderately less putrid than they had played before he was hired. And so he was given the job full time.
2. In his first full year, the Nationals lost 93 games. That’s .426 baseball. That was moderately less stinky than they had played the year before. He was kept on as manager.
3. The Nationals got off to a 27-36 start, which is .429 baseball. Riggleman reportedly had already begun griping that he was hamstrung because he did not have a contract for 2012.
...
Riggleman was reportedly the lowest-paid manager in baseball (though $600 grand a year ...
...
For managers with 1,400 or more games, no one from 1900 on has a lower winning percentage than Jim Riggleman, and that INCLUDES this lovely little winning stretch. That amazing thing to me, I am forced to admit, is not that Riggleman did not get a contract extension. It is that he had a contract in the first place.
So, he concludes:
I mean, when you take out all the noise, it comes down to this: HE QUIT ON HIS TEAM IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SEASON. Why? Because he wanted his contract extended.
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This reminds me of when Bure was reported to have threatened to not play in the last game of the Stanley Cup finals (1994 against Rangers), unless he got a contract extension. He signed the new deal two days after they lost Game 7 (he did play in Game 7). Riggleman can’t compare to this of course.
But, Bure says this story is not true.
There were stories you were blackmailing the team asking for a new contract.
“There is absolutely no truth to those allegations. So much was said about that and it’s simply not true. It was alleged that I put forward an ultimatum to the team that I wouldn’t play the last game, but at the time I had already had a contract. I had a ready contract before the playoffs even started. I didn’t need to do any of those things like the ultimatum.”
***
So, setting that one aside, which player or coach has quit on his team while the season was on-going because of a contract issue?
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