Chollygate: Eskin tells his side of Manuel incident

A guest on 610-WIP's morning show, radio host Howard Eskin said Charlie Manuel's threats of violence were desperate attempts to prove he can be tough on players.

Eskin, who said he prefaced his question with Lou Pinella's clubhouse challenge in Chicago, defended his behavior and said he acted within reason when he asked the Phillies' skipper whether it was time to ride his players a little harder. When things got heated, Eskin observed that both Jimy Williams and Davy Lopes, new coaches, stayed clear of getting involved, with Eskin implying the two ex-managers are trying to separate themselves from Manuel as much as possible. Eskin did not enter Manuel's office alone; he was accompanied by a member of the Phillies public relations staff. Later when the confrontation spilled into the clubhouse, Manuel made a show of saying "I'm going to kick your a--" in front of players and media, to which Eskin responded "Why don't you grow up?" Afterward, Eskin visited the Mets' clubhouse where several players commented on how uninspired the Phillies have been playing.

Comments

[clout]

Eskin is a spotlight hound who lives for these kinds of things. Interesting that the Daily News today refused to print his name! Their stories referred to him as "a radio talk show host." I think the series vs. the Nats arrives just in time.

Thoughts on late posts from last night's game thread: Nice to see tim coming around on the "addition by subtraction" argument in which he, parker, RSB and numerous other posters hailed the Abreu trade as great for the Phillies. To me, the best reaction to that trade was Jason's. It was immediate and it was right: He dropped the F bomb in a headline, the only time he's ever done that (although he quickly took it down.)

mark goldentyre ("if I were Mr. Gillick, I'd be making a list of possible replacements for Manuel. How about Reggie Jackson?") is either 12 years old or totally putting us on. I think it's the latter.

Final thought: The bats will come around. These are proven producers. But there's one area where the players aren't proven or have huge questions about their health. Anyone concerned about the bullpen yet?

[clout]

As predicted: "Phillies designated RHP J.D. Durbin for assignment." If he clears waivers he'll likely go to Ottawa.

[clout]

Was it smart to have Garcia throwing 95 pitches on a miserable cold night? Admittedly, his control got better as he went along, but I thought I read in the paper that they wanted to limit him to 70 pitches. The last thing they need is for him to have a setback here.

[Parker]

Clout, I agree with you on the bats coming around, but how much of this do you think can be attributed to the weather. I mean, clearly nobody wants to play in this crap. I don't want to blame that entirely, but for a team trying to break out of a slump in hitting, it has to make things just a bit more difficult. Your thoughts?

[J. Weitzel]

Buzz Bissinger weighed in with his thoughts on Manuel this morning on WIP. Says it's time for him to go, citing a talented team that isn't responding.

[Parker]

Jason: is there video of the Manual tirade. That would really lighten up my morning. Also, did you catch Pinella going off the other day? Great stuff. Maybe the Phils will respond like the Cubs did, and go beat the tar out of the Nats tomorrow.

[Parker]

Today I mean.

[phanatics brother]

probably went more like this...

"I'm uh..uh.. gonna kick your uh... uh.. dang ol' ass.."

[clout]

Parker: It was cold for the Mets too but they scored 8 runs. I think it's the level of competition: Braves, Mets, Marlins. The Nats might be what the doctor ordered.

[GM-Carson]

Seriously, how can the Phils not fire Manuel? How long do we have to wait?

[JZ]

Philly.com's poll this morning on the "big fight" is hysterical. What do folks think?

The majority voted they could "care less. Just win!"

This team is listless and it's safe to say we're all so, so tired of hearing, "But we can hit and we can turn this around and there's a lot of baseball left."

Why management isn't throwing the keys to the city to Joe Girardi is beyond me.

Anyone see Boogie Nights recently?

"We look like a--holes right now."

Exactly.

[barkley]

Wasn't Bowa the problem before? Now it Cholly? I worry this is more about how the organization brings players up. their preparation, knowledge of situations when they are at the plate and the well documented lack of plate discipline. Admittedly, all of these guys didn't come up through the farm, but many did....maybe I am grasping.

[gr]

and before bowa, terry francona was the problem. seriously, this organization's failures go way beyond charlie manuel.

charlie manuel is not the reason the bullpen stinks.

charlie manuel is not the reason the team can't get a hit with runners on.

charlie manuel is not the reason this is the losingest organization in baseball history.

if there's one reason to fire manuel, its so this "fire manuel, he's the problem" charade can finally be put to rest and jimy williams can be elevated to the position of chief reason the team doesn't make the playoffs. eventually, people will start to figure things out, i suppose.

[GM-Carson]

GR- I don't hear everyone saying "Manuel" is the problem. I hear people, myself included, saying "Manuel is part of the problem and the quickest/easiest thing to change".

[29A's]

I'm so glad we traded Bobby Abreu for nothing. The team is so much better now.

[Dave Kingman]

Gr you are right on, let's fire Manuel so that we can get a new scapegoat. Clout the way this team is playing do you think they can beat the Nats? Remember when they had to beat them at the end of last season and couldn't.

[SF23]

Here we go with Abreu trade again. An always entertaining topic of Beerleaguer. Didn't he struggle in the clutch for the Phils too?

[coleforcy]

If by struggling in the clutch you mean batting .330 with runners on and an ops of .990 and batting .322 and an ops of 1.004 with runners in scoring position, then yes he struggled in the clutch. He also batted .309 with ops of .987 with runners in scoring position and 2 outs. To me that is pretty clutch.