Ozzie Drops the Ball in Kansas City

I griped a lot yesterday about the abominable Tony Pena. Had he not come in the game, the Sox would have had a chance at a 6-4 win. Because of Tony Pena, the Sox lost 7-6. He was again the massive disaster I hated last year. Yet, he stays on our roster and Randy Williams heads back to AAA. Not that Randy Williams is any more deserving of a roster spot than Tony Pena, but Pena is just as deserving as Randy Williams of a trip back to anonymity. While Williams is replace by Threets, who will be Pena’s replacement? Just himself, unfortunately.

Yet, I don’t blame these two entirely for yesterday’s game. You don’t need to be a chef to cook a meal. The quality of the meal, however, is a totally different story. You will do what is asked of you using whatever talents you have, because that’s what you’re paid for. But the one paying your salary is partly responsible for the terrible meal, isn’t he? Why is the frycook at McDonald’s doing making my dinner at a French restaurant?

Your move, Ozzie Guillen. For all the “bo-lieving” he does in our team, he sure didn’t believe the Sox offense could make a 3-run comeback to overcome the Royals’ 3-1 lead. He figured why should he waste a good pitcher if the Sox were going to lose this one anyway. So Randy Williams and Tony Pena combined to bury the Sox in a 7-1 deficit. The Sox came around and scored 5 runs in one inning. Sure, difficult to predict, but not impossible against a pitcher who was becoming tired. Isn’t Ozzie to blame for this loss? I mentioned something about it after the Sox’ last game of the year against the Cubs. This situation was similar, but to a far greater extend. Especially because today is a day off and Thornton, Santos, or Putz could have rested their arms.

I never heard a post-game comment that reflected Ozzie taking responsibility for his very poor choice as a manager. All I heard was blame placed on Randy and Tony.

And this, my friends, is the post I am writing instead of my talk about umpires. What do you think about Ozzie’s managerial hiccup? Do you still blame Tony Pena instead of Ozzie? Thoughts?