Nice Game Guys

What's up Guys, Willie here. Just got back to the hotel after a good game. I made a number of great moves and led us to a solid victory today. But not everything was perfect, let me mention a few low points:

The game did not start off well, and I was sure we were doomed. You guys remember how I was throwing around a number of ideas regarding the lineup? Well I ended up giving Delgado the day off and asked Lo Duca to play 1B. I'm not comfortable with my bench strength if I played Valentin, especially since I need his counsel on the bench, and Franco was taking a nap around game time after a great early-bird dinner, so I instructed Trachsel to lob the ball up softly and run to the plate and catch it himself. I'm also a little suspicious of Lo Duca's ability to call a game (I mean why did he tell Glavine to throw Alou the homerball yesterday? I've spent so much time instructing my catchers to never call the homerball and to stick to curveballs and screwballs, but they never pay attention.) But for some reason Major League Baseball has a rule against lineup cards written on the back of Subway sandwich wrappers and so they just used the lineup card from yesterday and filled in Trachsel for Glavine. Boy, was I upset. But I've learned that a good manager does not let his emotions be visible, so I stopped crying and resumed my normal position on the top step of the dugout, trying to see what the out-of-town scores are. (For my fantasy team of course. I had 3 starters going today.)

Fortunately, Reyes started the game off with a hit. But then it hit the fan, so to speak, when he stole second base. I can't tell you how absolutely furious I was. Now let me preface this by saying Jose is a good kid and he's gonna be a solid player one day, but he cannot just keep ignoring the advice of his managers if he wants to do well. All year I've been telling Jose, "Look, everytime I give you the steal sign, you keep running to second base. Why the hell don't you just cut across the mound and go right to third? It's called a shortcut, Jose." No matter how many times I explain it to him, he won't listen. Maybe if I start fining him, he'll take notice.

I'm also considering firing Jerry Manuel, my trusted bench coach. He just doesn't have all his marbles nowadays. In the top of the 7th inning, with Matsui on 2nd and Trachsel coming up, Jerry asked me if I wanted to pinch hit for Trachsel. At that point, Trach had only throw 73 pitches and I wanted him to keep pitching, especially since we already had a nice little 2-1 lead. So I told Jerry, "I don't care if it's an automatic out, we have a nice lead." But then for some incredibly ludicrous reason, Jerry sent Valentin in to pinch hit! I was flabbergasted. My anger was tempered by the fact that it was Jose Valentin, King of the Pinch Hits, but still. I felt better after Rick Peterson explained that we had other pitchers who could come in to the game even though we pinch hit for Trachsel. I really think this "bullpen" idea is gonna catch on!

Anyway, I'm beat. We have an afternoon game tomorrow, and I'm going to try to figure out how to bump Bannister and let Zambrano have a go at these Giants. Good night all!