Wakamatsu's 'Terry Collins Moment' ? (part 2)
Legal disclaimer: This article is nothing more than opinion, supposition, and hearsay. It might or might not bear relation to the truth. Rumors of rumors of rumors aren't meant to be construed as factual testimony. -- Jeff
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Q. Who's Terry Collins again?
A. The last manager the Angels had before the Scioscia era. They were a mess with him and began their run as a model franchise at precisely the moment they fired him.
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Q. If Figgins' cyber-version were true, would this make the incident Wakamatsu's fault?
A. It wouldn't exactly excuse Figgins, but it would certainly mean that Wakamatsu set himself up for this kind of a catastrophe.
There is a line that managers have to be aware of, also, and there are certain things that *are* going to get an amp'ed up athlete in your face whether you're in the manager's office or in the middle of a White House visit. Calling a deep-south black player "lazy" in front of his 25 teammates isn't okay in the 21st century.
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Q. Wakamatsu failing to treat his players with dignity? Tough to buy.
A. Odd to think of Don Wakamatsu having a 'Terry Collins moment' when he's worked so hard to bring dignity to the clubhouse. You remember that in 2009 he wasn't ejected from a single game. Certainly his public persona is the opposite of Terry Collins'.
Whether Figgins was being 100% accurate defending his side of the story to his friends is another subject, but if Figgins relayed the incident accurately, then it certainly helps to explain Zduriencik's response to the whole deal.
Zduriencik's failure to discipline Figgins in any way is (1) pretty close to unprecedented, if he plans on keeping Wok around much longer, and (2) completely at odds with Zduriencik's old-school ethic.
Zduriencik is a principled man, a people person, and for him to hang Wok out to dry this weirdly ... well, he's got to be frustrated seeing a promising Felix-Lee team lose 100 games, but Figgins' side of the story would explain a lot.
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Q. A racial comment by Wakamatsu? Really?
A. We can safely presume that if Wakamatsu, in frustration, said "move your lazy a** next time" or somesuch, that he was saying it colorblind. Wok himself qualifies as a minority, by the way.
There's even the suggestion from Figgins' friend that Wak called him a "lazy n*****" in front of his teammates. SSI files this one under the "incredible" category, not "incredible" in the sense of "amazing" but in the sense of "not feasible."
We don't doubt for a second that either Figgins or his friend -- if this account be accurate, and no aspersions on Pitch for relaying what he heard -- was spinning the story to be more defensible than it was.
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Q. Where does SSI's moral compass take it here? What's "Justice" on this one?
A. The M's clubhouse has been a complete catastrophe since May -- since before the chickenfeathers dirty laundry aired against Ken Griffey Jr. -- and Figgins hasn't helped.
We can safely presume that there are not two, but probably more like five, different platoons in the clubhouse firing away at each other. This is at bottom because (1) sometimes pro athletes act like children -- we knew this -- and (2) because Wok evidently doesn't carry a Piniella's or a Cox's or a Valentine's clout to be able to clean it up.
That pro athletes could be weird, we knew. Zduriencik obviously feels that after Figgins gets under a strong manager, and the M's are winning, that he's not an incorrigible.
What I think would be ideal morality, and what is the morality of pro sports, are two different issues.
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Right now Zduriencik evidently feels that the "blame" is on Wakamatsu for not being a strong enough manager -- despite the winning, Griffey, and Sweeney carrying him in 2009 -- and that once you get the right guy in here, at bottom the 25 men in the clubhouse right now are decent guys in a bad situation.
Dr. D wearily acknowledges this as justice in the MLB context. If Wak, in the middle of taking this team to 100 losses, said something as stupid as Figgins' friend charges that he did, then he pretty much has himself to blame to the detonation following.
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Am still not a Figgins fan, but Zduriencik feels that a winning context and a strong manager and Figgins will revert to being a good actor. (Note that Figgins, after the meet, said "for me the same page is winning" and this is suggestive of Zduriencik's resolution as supposed here.)
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Thanks Chance. As y'know: anytime bro'.
Jeff