Phillies Manager Pete Mackanin Fining Players Again This Spring
By John Town
Phillies manager Pete Mackanin fined Maikel Franco one dollar after Saturday’s loss, continuing his policy from last season.
During Saturday’s loss to the Pirates, Phillies third baseman Maikel Franco lost a pop-up in the sun in the third inning, allowing it to fall on the ground. Franco had his sunglasses, but they were on his cap. The mistake did not go unnoticed by manager Pete Mackanin.
“We’re going to have to fine him a dollar,” Mackanin told Matt Breen of Philly.com.
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“I know it’s going to happen,” Franco told Jim Salisbury of CSN Philly. Franco made sure to wear his sunglasses the next inning and for the rest of the game after dropping the pop-up. He also made a diving catch and hit a grand slam later in the game.
Mackanin instituted the system of fining players one dollar for a mental mistake last spring. He says it’s to build accountability in his players.
While one dollar isn’t a huge deal to players who make hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars per year, Mark Townsend of Yahoo! Sports explained why the move works:
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"“A single dollar isn’t really a big deal, but it’s still annoying to have to pay a fine for someone else’s mistake. That’s the idea, though. No one wants to be the guy forcing everyone to reach in their wallet, and you can bet all of them were thinking that exact thing when paying for Franco’s mistake on Sunday morning.”"
Franco’s teammate, utility man Andres Blanco, also made sure to give a lesson to him.
“What happened with the fly ball? Why did you drop it? You had your glasses up here,” Blanco told Franco.
He certainly wasn’t happy with the idea of forking up a dollar either, and he let Franco know about it.
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Franco and the rest of his teammates will certainly remember paying their one dollar fine Sunday morning every time they go out on the field, and it should help their attentiveness.