Charlie Manuel Out as Philadelphia Phillies Manager
August 16, 2013 by Bill Riccette
Filed under Fan News
Sources tell Jim Salisbury of CSN Philly that the Philadelphia Phillies have scheduled a press conference at 2:30 to announce a manager change.
It has also been confirmed by Todd Zolecki, Phillies beat writer for MLB.com.
Manuel will leave Philadelphia after almost nine seasons with the club, leading them to seven winning seasons, not including 2012’s 81-81 season, but does include a 102-win season in 2011 and three additional seasons of at least 90 wins.
Manuel won five straight division titles from 2007-2011. The 2007 division title and playoff appearance were the first of each for the Phillies since their NL pennant-winning season of 1993.
The big season for Manuel and the Phillies came in 2008. After being swept by the Rockies in the 2007 NLDS, the Phillies won their second straight NL East title. Series wins over the Brewers in the NLDS and Dodgers in the NLCS put the Phillies in their first World Series since 1993.
Five games later, including a rain-filled Game 5 which took two days to finish, and the Phillies had defeated the Rays to win their first World Series since 1980 and only their second World Series in franchise history.
Manuel led the Phillies back to the World Series in 2009, only to fall in six games to the Yankees.
In fact, the Phillies would lose to the eventual world champions in both 2010 (Giants) and 2011 (Cardinals) in the NLCS and NLDS, respectively.
2012 turned out to be a rocky season for Manuel, going just 81-81, as mentioned above, though they did improve in the second half, going 44-31 after the All-Star break.
Manuel’s final game as Phillies manager will go down as a loss to the Braves on August 14. August 12, however, was Manuel’s 780th win as Phillies manager. But more importantly, his 1,000th career win as a manager, as he won 220 games with the Indians from 2000-02.
Update: Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer reported Ryne Sandberg will be named the next manager of the Phillies.
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