When Don Baylor pulled Jason Bere after six shutout innings and just 87 pitches in Houston on Sunday, I couldn’t believe it–did he think he had David Weathers, Todd Van Poppel, Kyle Farnsworth and Flash Gordon in the bullpen? The predictable happened, and thoughts of a long winning streak and a climb to challenge the division-winner-to-be Cardinals vanished.
In one stroke, the Cubs’ season crumbled. I was so mad I turned off the radio after the Astros tied the score. I was hoping to read in the morning Trib that Andy MacPhail immediately fired Baylor. Instead what I read was Phil Rogers writing that yanking Bere was “a sensible move.” I’m now hoping Kerry Wood will blow his stack at Baylor, now that his teammates are showing signs of life. Baylor never has known a thing about when to change pitchers, perhaps because of his indoctrination as a manager in Coors Field. Was Oscar Acosta let go because he tried to prevent Baylor’s pitching-change blunders?
MacPhail looks too much for American League castoffs–Mark Bellhorn, Chris Stynes, Matt Stairs, Ron Coomer, etc.–but his inconceivable blunder was turning down Charles Johnson and then handing $24 million to Todd Hundley, and that’s not a second guess. He apparently wanted Coomer and Hundley because they were “Chicago” players, and then he boots Mark Grace.
