Marlins Fire Girardi

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It’s been well known for a while now that Marlins manager Joe Girardi’s job was in jeopardy, not because he didnt fulfill expectations as the manager of the youngest, lowest paid MLB team in the country, but because he had some words with Owner Jeffrey Lloria. Girardi led this young team to an almost fairytale season, as despite the inexperience, despite the youth and despite not having any stars, the Marlins almost made it to the post-season.

Joe Girardi is to be commended for that accomplishment and my heart goes out to him and his family. I wish him only the best in his next coaching endeavor and truly hope he wins the Manager of the Year honors.

That said, I’d like to welcome the new Marlins Manager back home to Miami: Fredi Gonzalez. Via the Herald Sports:

ATLANTA – For as long as he can remember, Fredi Gonzalez has been driven by one simple goal: to honor his parents’ sacrifice.

And he could get a chance to take another big step in that direction today if, as expected, he is named the ninth manager of the Florida Marlins.

…

Calls to Gonzalez’s Marietta, Ga., home were not returned Monday night, fueling reports that the Atlanta Braves third base coach was on his way to South Florida, a trip that would bring his career full circle because Gonzalez not only learned to play the game on the sandlots of Little Havana, but also learned to manage it here as well.

Through it all, though, Gonzalez said he has been inspired by the stories he has heard about the day 40 years ago this December when Fredi Sr. and Caridad Gonzalez rounded up their three children and rushed to Havana’s Jose Marti International Airport just hours before a government deadline to leave the country expired.

They were allowed to take little more than the clothes on their back — — to their new home, where they had nothing and knew nobody.

`COURAGE’

”That’s courage,” Gonzalez said. “To go someplace where they don’t know anybody, they don’t know the language, they don’t know where they’re going to get their next meal.

“My parents raised three good kids on nothing. On a dream. It puts it in perspective. You’ve got to be appreciative of what you’ve got.”

And Gonzalez, 42, is nothing if not appreciative of what he appears he is about to get, namely the chance to manage a Major League Baseball team in the city that welcomed his parents and nurtured their children.

7 thoughts on “Marlins Fire Girardi”

  1. There’s a lot more to the story than the blow-up with Loria. Girardi and the Marlins GM Beinfest clashed almost from the beginning. I don’t have to tell you that Beinfest is the man who engineered the 2003 team that won the world championship and that assembled this team of usptarts. I give Beinfest the benefit of the doubt. He wanted Freddi since the beginning and he was a long time Marlins employee at both the big league and minor league levels.

    In short I don’t know how much of the Marlins success you can attribute to the manager (or any team’s success). What does Girardi tell Dan Ugla that makes him hit home runs.

    The manager makes maybe 3 or 4 decsions in the game that may affect the outcome (less in the AL). Most managers make the same types of moves (lefty vs. lefty, etc.) so how many games would the Marlins have won if Gonzalez (or Larry Bowa or Grady Little, etc.) was the manager? My guess is that it would be pretty close to the number they won with Girardi (within 2 or 3 wins one way or the other).

    Let’s not cry too big of tears of Girardi, he’ll be moving on to greener pastures.

  2. Conductor,

    While all that you say may be so, much of what happens in a baseball depends on how the players respond to their manager. From what the players are quoted as saying in this piece and others, Girardi did a pretty good job. The fact alone that he is in the running for manager of the year goes along way.

  3. let’s not kid ourselves. Baseball is an individual sport played in a team environment. I could name a half a dozen managers that could have managed the Marlins to within two or three games of their win total for the year (over or under) that were available at the time Girardi was hired. Are we going to dismiss the reports that say that Girardi wanted Willingham to catch, Cabrera to play first and 2 of our 10+ win pitchers to start the year in the minors?

    If true the Marlins would have been much worse off if the “Girardi way” had been adhered to.

    I had the pleasure of playing golf with Freddi Gonzalez at a tourney and he is a great guy who has been highly thought of in both the Marlins and Braves organization. He’ll be a fine manager for the young team.

  4. Congratulations to my cousin, newly named Marlins Manager, Fredi Gonzalez. He is a wonderful person — the product of wonderful, loving family. He is a true credit to the Cuban American community and to all of baseball. Congrats, again to Fredi — he deserves it!!!!

  5. Baseball’s long regular season may be forgiving to managers, but tell me a manager is a manager is a manager come the post-season.

    Joe Girardi, a True Yankee and member of Dynasty of the late 90s. Didn’t even know he was managing down there. Wish him the best.

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