Manuel loses cool...

This season has been anything but easy for Philadelphia Phillies manager Charlie Manuel. His team, picked by many to win the National League East division, is currently in last place in the division and NL MVP Ryan Howard is on the bench with a leg injury. On Thursday they were able to pull out a victory, but not without Phillies fans expressing their dissatisfaction with Manuel. One group of fans held signs that read "Hey Pat (GM Pat Gillick), Phire Charlie! Save Our Team!"

Following Wednesday night's game, Manuel apparently had enough. While taking questions following a 5-4 loss to Washington, Manuel got into a verbal altercation with a local reporter:


How do the Phillies save face from this incident? Well, it doesn't really appear to be a huge issue. Coaches have exploded as long as the game has been around and no one will ever live up to the Ryan Leaf explosion:



But the Phillies really don't have much work to do to clear this particular issue up. To me it is really simple - start winning. Winning will lighten everyone's spirit. The fans will be happy, the players will be happy, the front office will be happy, and Charlie Manuel will be happy.
From a PR standpoint, this really doesn't present much problem. Manuel has been around the game to earn the right to vent every now and again. He didn't really offend anyone and probably has learned his lesson. Keep your eye on the Phillies though, if they don't heat up, Manuel may be out of work...


All the best,

ben

Tim Duncan ejected for ...

This past Sunday, April 15, San Antonio Spurs star Tim Duncan was hit with two technical fouls that ultimately led to his ejection. Whats troubling is that Duncan was sitting on the bench when he received both technicals and apparently was ejected for laughing at what he thought was a bad call.



As you can imagine, after the game the media jumped all over the story, quoting Duncan as claiming referee Joey Crawford wanted to fight.
"He looked at me and said, 'Do you want to fight? Do you want to fight?"' Duncan said. "If he wants to fight, we can fight. I don't have any problem with him, but we can do it if he wants to. I have no reason why in the middle of a game he would yell at me, `Do you want to fight?"'

While this seems to be a case of 'he said, he said' what is commissioner David Stern supposed to do. He's got an argument between one of his best referees and one of his biggest superstars that has received national attention. Stern decided the best way to handle the situation was to suspend long time ref Crawford at least until the 2007 NBA Finals. At that point it appears the two will meet to discuss Crawford's possible reinstatement.

While on the face, this may seem like a brash decision by Stern, it seems to me to be rather appropriate. Stern must demonstrate his ability to handle situations like this that inevitably arise in professional sports contests. What he ought to do though, that it doesn't appear his has done, is fully investigate what actually happened. It doesn't appear he has gotten the full story from Crawford and may be missing some very important information.

I think his decision is the right move, but he may want to thoroughly look into the altercation. What was really said between the two and what will this mean for refs in the future...

All the best,

ben