"Icing The Kicker"? Really, Jerry Manuel?

The Mets' four-year implosion from Major League Team to The Bad News Bears is now complete as manager Jerry Manuel pulled off a move last night that was so bush-league that no self-respecting bush-leaguer would ever do.

In case you missed it, the Mets had runners at the corners with two out in the top of the ninth inning of a game they trailed, 3-2.  Brad Lidge was facing Pedro Feliciano and had an 0-2 count on him.  As Lidge went into his windup, the third base umpire started to frantically wave for time.

Lidge didn't see this, nor did the home plate umpire, as the pitch was delivered.  Feliciano swung and topped the ball back to Lidge, who threw to first for the final out.  Or so the 45,000-plus at Citizens Bank Park thought.  The third base umpire noted that he'd called time before the ball left Lidge's hand, so the out was taken off the board and Lidge would have to pitch to Feliciano again.

Now, a manager cannot simply call time to "ice" a pitcher.  There has to be a good reason to call time in baseball:  an injury, make a pitching change, etc.  So, it's obvious that Jerry Manuel had a good reason to call time in the situation.  Perhaps a pinch-runner at first in case Feliciano hits a ball in the gap to try and take the lead.

Nope.  Jerry Manuel called time to insert a pinch-runner at third base!!!  Keep in mind, there are two outs.  So on a fly ball to the outfield, the game's over.  On a ground ball to the infield, Greg Luzinski could be standing on third ... and the play is never going to be made to the plate.  Wild pitch?  Well, that's always a possibility with Lidge ... but unless the ball comes right back off the backstop to Chooch ... even Luzinski scores from third on a wild one.

So, why waste a pinch runner in that situation?  Why put in a faster runner than Thole with two outs?  I've seen hundreds of games in my lifetime, and I've never seen a team pinch-run for a guy at third with two outs.  There's no sane or legitimate baseball reason for it.  Which probably explains why Jerry Manuel isn't one-tenth the manager Charlie Manuel is.

The only reason for such a move is that Manuel was introducing the concept of "icing the pitcher".  He knows that Lidge is prone to wild pitches, especially with the slider.  Ahead in the count, 0-2, he knows the slider is coming on the next pitch, but the control Lidge has shown of late with the slider, and with the defense Chooch possesses, he also knows Feliciano is toast.

Unless, of course, he can piss off Lidge and get him angry enough to have him over-throw the slider and wild pitch a run home.  He can't affect Lidge by hollering "He ain't no pitcher, he's a belly-itcher" from the dugout, but he can piss him off by calling time just at the start of his windup.  And that's exactly what he did.

Bush league.  Childish.  And a clear indication that the Mets, as an organization, have fallen so far, so fast.  To engage in tactics that scream out to be eradicated from the rulebook.  (Here's how you do it:  once a pitcher comes set on the rubber, only the batter may call time, and the home plate umpire still controls whether or not he will allow it.  To prevent the batter doing to Lidge what Jerry Manuel did, no substitutions can be made when the batter calls time after a pitcher comes set.)

Here's what the Phillies should do to send a clear message to the Mets, and to MLB, about the way you can prevent this from becoming the norm (because you know Tony LaRussa saw this last night and went 'hmmmmmmmm'):  Plunk the first Met batter in today's game ... right between the shoulder blades.

Send the message to the manager that if you're gonna pull that kind of bullshit, your players are going to pay for it.  You start getting your players plunked for getting cute with the rules, and the MLBPA will be screaming for MLB to outlaw the practice.

I have one very strong message for Jerry Manuel, knowing that he will never see it:

You're a joke.  Your team stinks, and the best you can do to try and win a game is to pull a bush league stunt to try and rattle the pitcher.  Why not teach your guys to hit?  Or field?  You're leading by example, and the example you set last night shows why the Mets have mailed in this season and rolled over.  Your choice of tactic last night may have appeared "cat smart", but your players saw it for what it was ... an act of desperation by a manager who has been in over his head since he took over, and who hasn't anything better up his sleeve to improve his team's fortunes.

Your players don't need you, doing magic tricks with the rules.  They need a strong leader with the vision to make the club better through stronger fundamentals, not through rules tricks.  You're doing sleight-of-hand, hoping the players won't see that you have nothing up your sleeve to make them a contending team.  But the players have already read the book; they already know the ending.  And nothing you're doing is instilling any confidence in you.

You've mailed in the season, as well.  And last night's bush-league move was an acknowledgement that you have nothing better to offer your team than a hope and a wish and a dream that if you could just upset Brad Lidge, you could get the wild pitch necessary to tie the game.  And you'd have been satisfied with that, crowed about the "brilliance" of your stratgem, when you should be embarrassed that such a tactic is all you could think of in the situation.

A bolder, more educated manager, seeking to turn fortune 'round, would have gone for the surprise suicide squeeze.  But that would have required execution and fundamentals, something you obviously have spent little or no time discussing with your team.  Which is why the only bullet you had in the chamber was a cheap, immature stunt.

Good luck in your future endeavors, Jerry Manuel.  Because it's highly doubtful that anyone will ever hand you the keys to a major league club again.  Last night's idiocy should have finally opened eyes to the fact the the emperor is not wearing any clothes.