I was out tonight, and missed some of the early innings, picking it up in the 5th. A fantastic game to be sure-- the 2 run wild pitch, Ross' HR, Guyer and Davis schooling Chapman (Santa Maria!!), then the 10th inning rally. Without having followed the game thread, I wanted to see what people thought of Tito. I think he deserves his own, updated thread.
The Cubs won the World Series, and I'm very happy for them, especially their fans. Forget the suffering of the players, Joe Maddon or Theo. They were playing with house money. But for the legion of lifetime fans out there: congratulations. This is for you.
That said, I feel Tito needs to be congratulated, praised, for being an excellent manager and human being. There was talk of whether he will make the HOF or not; I really don't care, but I suspect he will. But what I took from these playoffs is that he was the best team manager on display.
Really, no one thought the Indians would do much. They had one solid but not awesome starter, another who performed better than expected until the end, and not much else. Their lineup was spotty, batting under .200 in the LCS, and not much better the rest of the way. Lindor was a revelation, but few others were reliable contributors. Still, they did enough. From the moment he brought Miller in the 5th inning in game 1 against the Red Sox, Tito seemingly redefined playoff managing in the modern era. And even then, he got consistently excellent performances from Miller and Allen, while Shaw and the rest were marginal, at least in my assessment. And the Indians came within inches of winning it all.
As Red Sox manager, I was always fond of and grateful to Tito. He seemed reasonably astute as a manager, if not a top notch tactician. It appears he may be one now. Maddon has been professed as the best, but he was clearly overthinking things this fall, and I feel like it took his team's superior talent to win in the end. I saw references to Tito having a bad game tonight, perhaps for leaving Kluber in too long, but he didn't call a stupid squeeze or take out effective pitchers and roll the dice.
And then, whenever I hear Tito speak, or read what he says, he tells it exactly like it is. He is deep, human, intelligent and caring. He is a "player's manager", as are Maddon and Farrell, but with a good edge. Think trash-talking Pedroia about cribbage to the press. He is a down to earth, sensitive man, who both realizes the privilege he has to play baseball for a living, yet treats his people like family in an effort to get the most from them, and himself. He is definitely growing as a manager. He is better now than he was with the Sox, more at ease with himself and his job.
So I wanted to give a shout out to Tito for being among the best in his profession. Thanks for teaching me more about baseball, and life.
The Cubs won the World Series, and I'm very happy for them, especially their fans. Forget the suffering of the players, Joe Maddon or Theo. They were playing with house money. But for the legion of lifetime fans out there: congratulations. This is for you.
That said, I feel Tito needs to be congratulated, praised, for being an excellent manager and human being. There was talk of whether he will make the HOF or not; I really don't care, but I suspect he will. But what I took from these playoffs is that he was the best team manager on display.
Really, no one thought the Indians would do much. They had one solid but not awesome starter, another who performed better than expected until the end, and not much else. Their lineup was spotty, batting under .200 in the LCS, and not much better the rest of the way. Lindor was a revelation, but few others were reliable contributors. Still, they did enough. From the moment he brought Miller in the 5th inning in game 1 against the Red Sox, Tito seemingly redefined playoff managing in the modern era. And even then, he got consistently excellent performances from Miller and Allen, while Shaw and the rest were marginal, at least in my assessment. And the Indians came within inches of winning it all.
As Red Sox manager, I was always fond of and grateful to Tito. He seemed reasonably astute as a manager, if not a top notch tactician. It appears he may be one now. Maddon has been professed as the best, but he was clearly overthinking things this fall, and I feel like it took his team's superior talent to win in the end. I saw references to Tito having a bad game tonight, perhaps for leaving Kluber in too long, but he didn't call a stupid squeeze or take out effective pitchers and roll the dice.
And then, whenever I hear Tito speak, or read what he says, he tells it exactly like it is. He is deep, human, intelligent and caring. He is a "player's manager", as are Maddon and Farrell, but with a good edge. Think trash-talking Pedroia about cribbage to the press. He is a down to earth, sensitive man, who both realizes the privilege he has to play baseball for a living, yet treats his people like family in an effort to get the most from them, and himself. He is definitely growing as a manager. He is better now than he was with the Sox, more at ease with himself and his job.
So I wanted to give a shout out to Tito for being among the best in his profession. Thanks for teaching me more about baseball, and life.