The Good-Bad Days: Mike Scioscia v. Frank Robinson

I wish it was 2005 again.

It’s story time kids! Have a seat in a semi-circle around the computer screen.

Flashback: June 14, 2005. The Nats are tearing it up to begin the first season in the district. Out in Anaheim for a west coast interleague road trip, the team is down 3-1 heading into the 7th inning. With a runner on first the Angels make a call to the bullpen bringing in Brendan Donnelly, he of the seizure like herky-jerky unnecessary windup from the stretch pitching motion, to hold the lead. This is where it gets interesting. I do not know if Frank was tipped off to it or not, but he basically called the umpires over and told them to check Donnelly’s glove for “foreign substances”. The culprit was pine tar, the pitcher was ejected, the managers got to inspect each others dental work, and the benches cleared. Crazy Jose Guillen, I call him Crazy Jose, went ballistic and was restrained by teammates and coaches. So in came Scot Shields and he finished out the inning.

The following inning Scioscia checked the glove of Nationals RP Gary Majewski, claiming that the laces were too long. Nice try, loser. No damage done and the inning was over - on to the 8th. You could just feel the tension mounting. Ryan Church was hit by a pitch and up came Crazy Jose. He smoked one out to left field. The second hardest hit homer I have seen (on television) ever. Frank has a better way with words than I do, as he said “He got the bat moving. You can see what happens, when he has the bat going forward. The ball looked like a missile going out of here.”

The Nationals scored two more runs in that inning and one in the 9th to win the game 6-3, The Chief picked up his 20th save of the year, and the fans would be in for some stellar baseball heading into the All-Star break.

Back to reality: Personally, I loved Franks managerial style. Throw players under the bus, cuss and spit, tell it how it is. He never hid behind political correctness and was very stubborn. Is that productive for a team? Probably not. It would be terrible for the 2008 version. It is fun for me though, so that is all that matters. But I think its time for the Nats to get spunky and start some mayhem, at least just to change things up and provide some energy to a clubhouse that is devoid of human emotion.

I guess the moral of the story is that if you get really fired up about something, take it very personally, use that anger to bond with your teammates, and call out the other guys, it can result in good baseball. Then the team will collapse because of an insanely long mid-season break that destroys momentum and finish the season at .500. The team is close to the bottom regardless - .500 is an improvement! Lets have a brawl!