Manuel v. Eskin: The Bitter Aftertaste

Some interesting fallout/observations from the Charlie Manuel-Howard Eskin steel cage match:

1) This awesome NBC10 video of Manuel's tirade delivered to the allegedly foppish and insufferable Eskin (he is in radio after all). Contrary to expectations, I think I'm siding with Manuel right now. Any white dude who wears fur coats to Eagles games and calls himself "The King of Bling" deserves to get slapped around a bit. For more about Eskin, his completely real and wholly accurate MySpace is a good place to start.

As for the video, it's kind of frightening to hear Charlie get that angry. It's like if Jimmy Carter ever went on a furious drunken bender at Camp David:
Carter: I'll be in the conference room. I'll be waiting on you. We're gonna make peace! We're gonna make peace!
Sadat: I hope you do! I hope you do!
Begin: Hey, what's it to you any-f**king-way?

2) "We're gonna win!" is now officially in the pantheon of Quintessential Philly Sports Quotes, joining the illustrious ranks of "We talkin' bout practice, man," "We flubbed that dub a little bit," and any time John Kruk yells about how he's afraid of statistics.

The inflection makes it perfect. It's similar to how a kid responds when asked to take out the trash for the fifteenth time--"Well, I'm gonna do it." And he does. Eventually. Maybe you have to cuff him a few times.

3) Brett Myers, Opening Day starter, sent to the bullpen. That's right. The Phillies have banished their supposed staff ace to long relief in favor of Jon "Chipmunk Cheeks" Lieber (I actually kinda like him as a No. 3 or 4).

Myers had the pleasure of coming out of the 'pen his very first day as a reliever, a 13-inning loss to the Nationals on Wednesday.

They showed some promise by coming back to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth with a run "manufactured" in the true Philadelphia style: two walks, a sacrifice bunt, and an RBI groundout. All by the bottom of the order, natch. Getting hits is for those other teams, you know, like the Mets.

But let me reiterate. Another loss. To the Washington Nationals. Not only are the Phillies last in the NL East, not only are they last in the National League, they are dead last in Major League Baseball.

Last. In. The. Entire. Major. Leagues. I can't even watch the games and it hurts. Forget about getting better. Will it ever become tolerable?

I hope it does. I hope it does.