Get this... only one other manager in Phillies history has guided the team to three straight titles in the NL East (before Charlie, of course). In fact, no other manager in team history has taken the team to the playoffs three times.
There's Charlie and there is Danny Ozark.
When I first learned about what baseball was, Danny Ozark was the manager of the Phillies. Better yet, when I was a kid, Danny Ozark took the Phillies to the playoffs every year.
It was because of Ozark, who died at age 85 last May, that I also learned the time-tested idiom of baseball that managers are hired to be fired. In August of 1979 Ozark was released from his job as manager of the Phillies, which at the time was baffling to me. My youthful naïveté just saw the three consecutive playoff appearances and the back-to-back 101-win seasons, which is a feat never duplicated before or since in team history
I can’t say I have too many memories of Ozark’s work other than the time I went to game at The Vet when I was a kid and he came onto the field to argue a call or maybe he got ejected. I can’t recall though through the magic of the web site that is Baseball-Reference, I dug up the box score.
Anyway, it seemed as if Ozark was the right man at the time to build up the Phillies to a playoff caliber team. He took them right up to the crest of the hill, but had to step aside so Dallas Green could push them over the top.
From the sound of things, Charlie Manuel nailed it when describing Ozark after his death last May.
“I knew Danny Ozark and I considered him a friend of mine,” Manuel said. “He used to talk to me a lot. I was a player when he managed in the minor leagues. He was great guy – a great baseball guy. He was a dedicated baseball guy. He was a good teacher, too. He loved the game and had a good personality about him, too.”
Calling someone a “good baseball man” is one of the highest words of praise from the baseball fraternity. When one hears another call someone a baseball man, well, you can tell a lot about that guy immediately. So it sounds like Danny Ozark was a good guy and Philadelphia was lucky to have him for a few glorious years.
Ballgame: Pedro got into a jam in the first, but then again that's just what he does. Three one-out singles loaded the bases, which forced Pedro to bear down. After a strikeout, Hunter Pence worked the count to 3-0, before it got to 3-2 where he fouled off three in a row.
The nice little battle ended when the eighth pitch of the at-bat was outside.
It's worth noting that those white towels they gave out as fans walked into the park tonight look pretty cool when everyone waves them around. The fans also appeared to believe that Pedro got pinched on a couple pitches to Pence and Kaz Matsui.
The Phillies got that run back, though. Jimmy Rollins led off with a double and moved up to third on a bunt by Victorino. Why bunt so early in the game when the Phillies are known for their ability to score runs?
Simple. Chase Utley and Ryan Howard wear out Astros pitcher Brian Moehler. Headed into the game, Utley was 7-for-20 with a 1.108 OPS against the veteran righty, and Howard was 10-for-20 with three homers, three doubles and seven RBIs.
Of course Victorino was 7-for-14 heading in, too, so who knows if the bunt was a little too conservative. Besides, the Phils manufactured a run on Utley's ground out to knot it.
First inning: Phillies 1, Astros 1