clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Marlins like what they see in Larry Bowa as a manager

I wonder what they have seen.

Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

The Phillies coaching staff is already changing. John Mizerock and Rod Nichols are gone, but everyone else was invited back. Jim Salisbury is saying that while some are expected to return, guys like "Silky Smooth" Juan Samuel may seek further opportunities. After beating the Marlins on the last day of the season, one Phillies coach seems to have made quite an impression on Miami. Quite an impression indeed.

"According to sources, the Phillies have granted the Miami Marlins permission to speak with Bowa about their manager's job."

Huh huh heh heh huh.

Bowa has been the Phillies manager before, then went away for a while, then just appeared in the clubhouse again as a player asked who this old man was who was yelling at him. The Phillies made him part of the coaching staff because he wouldn't have gone away anyways.

Bowa's coarse, prickly demeanor has made him not quite the man for the managerial job in, say, Philadelphia, an organization that's attempting to make up for lost time as far as a new philosophy. Bowa represents the "old school" baseball you hear about so much that he actually lives in an old, abandoned school. So those of us who think these sort of thoughts about a man who is, admittedly, a franchise icon, can stomach that he's around, since he's not in a supreme leadership role.

Maybe that's what the Marlins are looking for! Maybe they want a ferocious authority figure who can get their whippersnappers into shape, yell at Giancarlo Stanton's back until it heals and finally get that smirk off Jose Fernandez's face. What's he so happy about, anyway? Having the best job in the world? Life, in general? If the Marlins want to succeed, somebody needs to take him down a peg; the way Bowa did earlier this year, when he took the No. 2 slot as the Phillies coaching took turns yelling at Ken Giles in the dugout.

Eh. Well, if the Marlins are known for anything, it's deft personnel decisions.