Posts tagged ‘Manny Acta’

Wow. Finally, after nearly half the season is gone and in the books, the team seems to be at least DOING the right things off the field. On the field will come, but we all know that the stuff off the field (i.e. practice, clubhouse karma, getting your ass chewed out when need be) spreads to the field like wildfire. It’s why the 2004 Red Sox were so good. It’s why the current Rays and Marlins are turning heads. It’s also why the O’s need to lose Peter Angelos and the Mariners are a shell of where they are supposed to be. And now, the Nats can leave the latter list and join the former.

It seems that I am not the only one who got fed up with the way they have been playing. Apparently Manny Acta was watching too - which is surprising at times. Before last night’s 5-4 win over the Angels in dramatic fashion, Acta simply posted a note in the clubhouse that read “Meeting 4:15.” It was the first closed door meeting of the season and almost too late. As I noted in previous posts and on the show, the Nats are horrible, especially this month when… If I’m reading right… they were 6-22 for the month of June including a three game sweep of the only team with a worse record, the aforementioned Mariners.

I read somewhere that the win made the meeting worth while, and that if they had lost the words of Manny would have been a waste. This I can’t argue with. However, the fact that the soft spoken manager, the Tony Dungy of baseball, called together the troops and ripped them for poor play (although he reportedly stayed true to form and didn’t yell). They responded with a homer from Lastings and a walk off double from “Nobody messes with the” Jesus Flores.

The team is miles from where they need to be, and I don’t want to get crazy here, but at least the team seems to understand all this. A win is great, but the fact that they responded to Manny speaks volumes. They respect him enough to listen and understand he is right and they are wrong. This doesn’t always happen in these meetings. Sometimes they go south and people start throwing chairs and later find themselves “accidentally” spending the night with their spring training roommates’ wife.

Now I don’t know what Manny said, although I am hoping he used the word lollygag over and over, but I appreciate him saying it. The next test will see how they respond past this game. Do they need to get this once a month? I hope not. The time is yours boys. Play ball.

Well it’s about time. Or is it?

With a two-run job in the 10th inning last night to seal the win against the Pirates, it seems that young Lastings Milledge might be coming around. In his last 10 games, Milledge is batting .308 with two home runs. Now true, that’s not exactly superman like and he only has four RBI over that span, but for a team that continues to get shellacked by lesser opponents and no run support, is that much of a surprise? It’s almost the all-star break and we have finally some glimpses of what may be - kinda.

Speaking of our young guns, how about the Elijah “I’m not mad, I just look like that at all times” Dukes getting into the swing of things this week too? Nice walk off at home followed by the ever-so-endearing “turn to the fans chest thump.” I think it’s nice to see some fire and moxy on this team but I could be in the minority here. It all depends if Dukes is doing that stuff for himself, or for the team. That has yet to be decided. For now, I’m taking the team.

But what was that whole deal in the dugout with Manny? Good God. Just because everyone else in the baseball world is feuding on the field (ARZ/PIT, BOS/TB) and in the dugout (TB, BOS, even Arizona St. – even if it was a fake) does that mean we need to as well? And how bout that non-hand shake after the game? What are we 12? Seriously, I can remember saying some bleeped out things to opponents after Little League games but, come on, let’s get grow up. Slap your manager’s hand and move on. Is this the beginning of what we saw from the Dukes in Tampa? Let’s just hope he doesn’t start swinging at randoms outside Ben’s Chili Bowl after a rough night at the plate.