Charlie Manuel held court today. Oh sure, he holds court every day around 4ish where he engages the writing press until there is nothing left to talk about. Sometimes this lasts for a few minutes. Other times, it goes on and on and on.
Today was one of those days where it went on and on and on.
There was plenty to talk about. The Phillies are in first place despite some slumps and ineffectiveness, which always makes the ballclub more interesting. But even more interesting is the fact that the Phillies are in first place even though they aren’t pitching particularly well, nor are they playing all that well at home, either.
But what really made Manuel’s daily tête-à-tête go extra long today was the presence of the TV camera for The Charlie Manuel Show.
Oh yeah, they put the cameras on us for a change.
Yeah, not good. It made one think, “Who let the bridge trolls out?”
Yet with the camera from The Charlie Manuel Show recording the powwow, Charlie Manuel brought out the really good stuff. How good? Check out this little nugget…
When talking about the Phillies fans, Manuel says he noticed how well they traveled to see the team on the road. That was especially the case last weekend at Yankee Stadium.
“Yeah. You know when I came to that conclusion? When we took over Yankee Stadium on Sunday. We did. We were louder than they were. We took over Yankee Stadium. We were talking about that on the bus coming home.”
Actually, Manuel says the fans can really get after him and the team a little more. No sense letting the team get all fat and happy because it won the World Series last year.
If they want to boo, then they ought to boo.
“Our fans are still really into everything. They fill our ballpark up and they stay,” Charlie said. “I notice sometimes if fans are near our dugout and talking to our players, they always want to talk about last year. That’s good. I want them to keep coming to the games. But I want the fans to start telling them they want to win this year, too. Of course they love us and everything, but maybe they should get on them a little bit.”
There you go folks, come on out and keep the home team accountable. Let them have it… why not? Charlie wants you to.