Charlie Manuel Is Mad, Claims No One Knows

Last night the Phillies lost 4-3 to the New York Mets. That isn’t all that shocking. What happened after the game, well, that is what is.

Howard Eskin a reporter for, wait, who does he actually work for? Does anyone know? I am fairly certain he just hangs around press conferences rooms looking for compliments about his patterned scarves and fur coats. During the post game press conference Eskin asked a hard hitting question about outside of Chase Utley, will the rest of the lineup being fine.  Solid reporting which you can read about on… alright, I’ll stop.

Eskin’s questioning got under Manuel’s skin a tad bit.  Manuel fired back, “Stop thinking about that — ‘Is the rest of the lineup gonna be fine?’ Do I know if the rest of the lineup is gonna be fine? If I knew that, don’t you think I’d do something about it?” Manuel has a point. It is hard to say if this lineup will ever be capable of scoring enough runs to win baseball games on a consistent basis. Signs are pointing towards ‘no.’

Charlie can’t actually say that though despite him surely knowing it.  Eskin tried asking the same question again, but changed a few words. The prodding really got to Manuel.  Clearly bothered, he yelled, “I don’t know what I can do. If we don’t hit and score runs, I don’t know what we can do. I don’t know what nobody else can do about it and I know you can’t do a damn thing about it.”

Boom.

After the most emotion Charlie has ever shown in his long tenure as manage of the Phillies, he asked if anyone else had any other questions. No one did. So he got up to leave the podium. Eskin however thought of another zinger as Charlie walked away. “When is this team going to score 10 runs?”

“When I knock you out,” Manuel said. “That’s when.”

Double boom.

You can watch the full exchange here, courtesy of Comcast SportsNet.

Not that I ever thought Charlie didn’t care about how awful this team has been, but it is nice to see it every once in a while. Who knows?This may or may not be his last year in Philadelphia. Either way, despite his in game managerial short comings, he is still and will always be one of the best Phillies.

Oh, also, Eskin can eat poop.