Manager Of The Year?

Look around the National League, and you'll find four, built-in candidates for the Manager of the Year:  San Diego's Bud Black, Cincinnati's Dusty Baker, Atlanta's Bobby Cox, and San Francisco's Bruce Bochy.  On the surface, all four seem deserving of the honor because, quite frankly, with the exception of Atlanta, folks weren't really sold on the Pads, Reds, and Giants.

The problem with the way that the Manager of the Year is usually decided is that, many times, it's awarded to a manager whose team wasn't picked by the media (who, of course, vote on the award) to finish in playoff contention or in the playoffs themselves.  So, in some seasons, it's more like a "Surprise Team of the Year" award, given because it must have been the manager's keen skill that turned a bunch of guys no one held much respect for into a playoff-caliber team.

In other seasons, the Manager of the Year is the guy whose team was so dominant that, by golly, it must have been that manager's cool guidance and strategy that gave the team the killer instinct to so dominate the competition.  So, in other seasons, it's more akin to a "Team of the Year" award, but given to the manager, instead.

Rarely, however, is a manager given the award for the very reason he holds his job: managing a major league baseball team.  In 2010, with all the hoopla about Cox's Farewell Tour, and the surprise showings by those aforementioned Padres, Reds, and Giants, one manager's skill at managing his ball club may be over-shadowed, and completely ignored.

Yep, we're talking about Charlie Manuel.

It wasn't that long ago (2006, to be exact) that Phillies fans were very much against the quiet, unassuming manager from a town so far in the boonies that they have to import sunshine.  Charlie wasn't a smooth-talker.  Sounded more like some rube than one of the premier hitting coaches in all of baseball.  Fans just didn't take to him.  They wanted someone who looked, and sounded, and acted like ... well ... anyone but Charlie.

But ol' Chollie (as many fans have come to call him) wasn't as dumb as his speech or his mannerisms might have seemed.  Seems he knew a thing or two about what it takes to make a ballplayer want to give 100% every night, all 162 of them.  And when Phillies fans finally went for good ol' Chollie, they went for him in a big way.  Now, it seems there's almost nothing he can do to ever tarnish his reputation.  You can be sure that, for as long as he lives, Charlie Manuel will never pay for another drink in Philadelphia.

And it is that intelligence, that charisma, that persuasive way of his that has kept your Philadelphia Phillies in the hunt all these long months.  For any other manager, the spate of injuries to All-Star players would have crushed his team's spirit.  Just look at how the Mets imploded in 2009 when they lost Reyes, Beltran, Putz, and others.  *Jerry* Manuel couldn't keep Humpty Dumpty together.

Yet, here we are, six weeks away from season's end, with the Phils breathing down the necks of the pesky Braves, who will not go away.  How is it that the Phils have been able to hang in there by the skins of their teeth?

Charlie Manuel.

He started the season with Romero and Lidge out of his bullpen.  Less than two weeks into the season, his All-Star shortstop is out for a month.  He loses Carlos Ruiz to a concussion.  He loses Chase Utley to a thumb ligament.  Brian Schneider, the backup catcher, goes down.  He loses Ryan Howard to an ankle sprain.  Loses Shane Victorino to another strain.

The team doesn't hit from mid-May to early-July.  A 24-13 record turns into a 49-46 record, treading water and looking up at two teams in the NL East.  Joe Blanton looks like he should be pitching in the local slo-pitch league.  Kyle Kendrick is about as consistent as lumpy oatmeal.

And just when things were looking up, when Roy Oswalt joined the club in a trade, Jamie Moyer goes down, forcing Kendrick back into the rotation when he was just about to get sent back down to Lehigh Valley.

Through it all, however, the Phils refused to quit.  Refused to let the injuries and the inconsistency drive them where the Mets resided last year.  Charlie Manuel was the guy who kept the club's nose to the grindstone.  Kept reminding the club that if they played hard, and worked hard, and fought hard alongside each other, they would start to succeed and they would start to win, and then, the rest of the league would fear them.

Imagine Larry Bowa in charge of these guys at this time.  He would have believed he could scream and shout wins out of this bunch.  Dallas Green, for all he is revered for, could have upset all the post-game buffet tables he wanted, and would have lost this team back before the All-Star break.

But Charlie, quiet, simple, unassuming Charlie, has these Phillies in the hunt because he kept telling them to believe in the things that have gotten this club back-to-back pennants.  Because he has them believing like they did in 2007 when they did the improbable.

And because he has managed, quite literally, to keep this team, with such a huge target on its back, in the race in spite of every injury and inconsistency, Charlie Manuel, more than the four others I mentioned earlier, is the man who, in a perfect world, should be the unanimous choice for National League Manager of the Year.