A tale of two skippers

Welcome, my friends, to year six. The train is set to depart in a couple days on another long season of comfort sounds. The balls are set to smack the back of a catcher's mitt and the sounds that crackle off the barrel of a wooden stick careening a baseball 350ft away into the roar of a crowd are soon at hand. Yes, my friends, it is year six that our train is set to depart and at the helm of the engine is our skipper, Charlie Manuel.

Expectations are high this year, but so has every year that Charlie has taken the reigns of the club. He comes into the season with a newly acquired pitching phenom that will surely bolster his rotation and he has reloaded the usual cast of offensive bullets in an attempt to shoot down the rivals of the division as he has in years past.

The ride hasn't been as smooth as one might remember it being though.

When Charlie took over after the 2004 season, he took the place of the recently let go Larry Bowa. Bowa was a charismatic leader of a team that wore his heart on his sleeve. You always new what you were feeling out of Bowa. He was never afraid to show his true feelings towards the umpires, the media, and even his own players. Bowa was a favorite among fans. He helped bring the Phillies back to the winning ways of the early 1980's by teaching a game of all out hustle and grit. The Phillies had a many losing seasons before Bowa grabbed the helm of the club and quickly brought the team to the bright side of baseball compiling 3 seasons out of 4 of winning baseball and even won a manager of the year award.

He lost his team though and couldn't quite get over the hump of making a deep run into the playoffs. He was fired, and I must say, I was not to pleased at the time.

Fans and the media did not take long to notice the difference between Bowa and Manuel. He tended to not speak out against his players and he didn't really offer up much of a reply for decisions made during games. He didn't seem to be quite comfortable sitting in at press conferences answering the questions and having the spotlight solely on him and the media ate it up. Teasing him about his mumbling answers and down home approach to the professional nature of the game, Howard Eskin and others started to mention him as Uncle Charlie. They would berate him in the newspapers and on the radio constantly, second guessing every call. I have to admit, I was among them with my friends. We would almost use our Foghorn Leghorn voice as Manuel's.

You know what seemed to happen though? He won. Charlie Manuel has never finished a season with less than 85 wins. He has gotten over 90 wins twice in five years. He has been voted by fans as the best manager in baseball on one occasion. He has the absolute backing of his players. He even has won over this writer.

A new season is upon us and I sat back today and wondered what would have happened if Larry Bowa had remained the coach of The Philadelphia Phillies all this time. You know what, I'm not sure. What I do know is that what has happened has happened. Results are results. We have our ring. We came damn close last year. Sometimes I think that coaching is overrated in sports and that if you have the talent, anybody can win sometimes.

Manuel reminded me though back in 2007 that he cared deeply for his team and his players when he finally confronted Mr. Eskin during a press conference. Eskin was really egging Charlie on about why he didn't get in his players' faces and pressed their buttons and try and motivate the players through pressure tactics. What Charlie did instead was defend himself and his team at the same time by telling Howard that he would gladly talk to him about it in his office anytime and actually had to be pulled out of the room.

That showed me what we had as a skipper. Fire. Determination. Passion. Leadership. I didn't realize it before then and I really believe the team has been a different one since that day.

Charlie Manuel is the coach of our Phillies. As fans we have trusted in him and he has given us all that we could have asked for. I am ready to ride the train again.

Welcome to year six. All aboard.