Redlegs Rundown | MVN - A Cincinnati Reds Blog
Redlegs Rundown
A Premature Eulogy of Jerry Narron
The vultures are circling. The fat lady is warming up her chords. The Titanic has left the dock. JFK Jr is starting up the Cessna… you get the point. Jerry Narron’s time as the leader of the Reds is more than likely drawing near. I am in the VAST minority here, but I am one of the few Reds’ fans who does not think that Jerry Narron is an absolute baseball moron. If you’ve ever heard him in an interview just talking baseball, you’ll find out that he is a man who absolutely loves and lives the game of baseball with every ounce of his being. To use his much mocked saying, he’s “a baseball guy”.
We’re bombarded by talk show hosts and moronic callers who say that every move he makes is wrong. He goes ‘by the book’ too often. He uses too many different lineups. He has three catchers on his roster. I can go on. You can make an argument for every move he makes. His only problem is that each move seems to backfire. A manager who manages ’by the book’, and has so for twenty years won his third World Series title last year. I’m not comparing Narron to Tony LaRussa, just stating my point. Jerry uses so many lineups because he has to. Like I mentioned in a previous post this is a terribly flawed roster that was put together not by him, just handed to him. He couldn’t plan on his catcher forgetting how to hit, his third baseman being a head case, and his cf-2b-3b-rf-lf leadoff hitter extraordinaire being a lunatic who runs himself so ragged that he can’t play for more than five games a week because he wears down. As for the three catchers, there are four other teams in the National League who also carry three backstops: Washington, Philadelphia, San Diego and Arizona.
I’m not here to say that Jerry Narron has no culpability for this team’s terrible play. He vowed to preach fundamentals and stress more small-ball. Neither have been very successful: too many brain-cramps in the field, too many runners stranded. He probably needs to be let go, both for the Reds and for his own sake. The players seem to have tuned him out especially on this current West Coast swing.
I guess my main issue is how some people, Richard Skinner of 1530 AM being first and foremost, portray him as being some know nothin’-hilljack because of his laid-back Southern drawl. Jerry has forgotten more about baseball strategy than 95% of us will ever know, and it’s a damn shame he’s getting beaten down for trying everything he can to get this team to play right.
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12 Responses to “A Premature Eulogy of Jerry Narron”
May 15th, 2007 at 7:06 pm
Where I might agree with your assessment of Narron, I think we all might agree with the fact that when a team isn’t playing well, they don’t let the whole team go, they fire the manager. Unfortunately, that’s who the blame will be placed on, and it’s just easy for fans to point the finger at the manager, southern drawl or not.
May 15th, 2007 at 7:38 pm
I understand that, you know me better than that. He’s not getting a 100% fair shake from the fans though. BTW Joe Girardi is a great choice for manager, if you want a blowhard who butts heads with everybody he comes into contact with from the front-office on down. A disciplinarian would be nice, but not Tom Coughlin I mean Joe Girardi. He hasn’t earned the right to be such a contentious ass yet. How do you win manager-of-the-year and still get canned? Oh yeah, tell your bosses how to do their job.
May 15th, 2007 at 7:47 pm
I note the general lack of success of the four other teams you list with three catchers, as well.
May 16th, 2007 at 12:29 pm
I’m not so worried about having three catchers on the team as I am with the fact that the bullpen straight sucks. Kind of hard to win games when most nights the starters leave us in a good position to win and then here comes the pen and blows it. But yes it does all fall on the manager regardless of who’s to fault, i.e. the GM who done little if anything in the off season to make this team better.
May 16th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
I’d have to agree. Whether or not the Reds win baseball games or not has little to do with the third catcher, and a lot to do with the bullpen and lack of consistent offense.
May 16th, 2007 at 11:38 pm
This team is the most fundamentally unsound crew I have ever witnessed in all of my considerable number of years watching baseball. They fail to get down sacrifice bunts, they fail to move runners along, and they couldn’t hit a sacrifice fly if the outfielders moved in directly behind the dirt of the infield. They couldn’t play small-ball if they wanted to because they can’t execute the basic fundamentals that go along with that type of offense. Maybe it is time for the owners and Wayne Krivsky to seriously look at starting over with youngsters who care about losing. As Chris Welsh said the other night, there are too many guys in that clubhouse that are willing to just shrug off losing like it is no big deal.
May 17th, 2007 at 3:15 pm
I am really beginning to like Chris Welsh. Just like all the fans, he’s getting really ticked at this losing ballclub. We have the SAME EXACT team as last year (minus Cormier, plus Stanton, Saarloos, Conine) and we’re not winning. There were and still are high expectations for this ball club. Something needs to be done.
Although it’s hard for your players to care when crap calls are made, and your Manager sits in the dugout with his arms folded or immediately retreats to the clubhouse following a defeat.
May 21st, 2007 at 6:45 pm
I can’t count, on all my toes and fingers, the games that Narron has personally turned from a win to a loss, because he just can’t stay out of the bullpen. This guy needs to go, followed by Krivsky - his trades have been losers all the way around.
May 22nd, 2007 at 6:43 am
I can think of some exceptions, Thomas: Brandon Phillips and Josh Hamilton come to mind.
May 24th, 2007 at 9:46 am
The reds are terrible,probably the worst team anywhere..A girls softball team could beat them right now..Narron needs fired an so does Wayne Crapski for bringing all the losers he has brought into Cincinnati..It’s time for hilljack Jerry and his illegitimate son Todd Coffee to go..
November 18th, 2007 at 2:05 pm
it was dumb that they fired narron….. dumb dumb dumb……i’m still bitter.
November 20th, 2007 at 10:03 pm
Late to the party, Nic?
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