As hard as it may be to believe, Shildt may actually find great comfort in getting the pink slip. I was fired several times, before finally going into business for myself, and almost every time I didn’t mind the experience. I wonder if Shildt has ever even been fired once in his life?……quick story. We all vividly recall our first time getting the ax. Mine was the summer of my high school graduation year in Solon. I went to work with my best buddy at his father’s company. General Metal Heat Treating was located in the belly of the beast of Cleveland, Ohio. Mike and I would go out EVERY night drinking and chasing young ladies until the wee hours….and then get up a few hours later with a raging headache. Mike’s father, always attired in suit and tie, drove us into work with him each morning. Mr. Torok was not a person to mess with. Though the car was immensely comfortable, the seemingly long ride in was nothing short of pure hell. He listened to nothing but the news and we just wanted to catch a little snooze, but he insisted that we both sit up straight and not slouch or God forbid doze off. The real hell started once we got there. I suppose the intense heat of that facility might have been fairly nice in January, but in June it was horrible. Dust, smoke and heat everywhere. OSHA would have had a field day with that place these days. You’d be in that place for 10 minutes and when you’d spit, it’s color was pitch black. Anyway, to make a long story short, Mike and I didn’t work out very well in the testing department, so we were both handed sickles and were told that our job for the summer was to hack down this huge field of weeds outside. So each and every day for the next 3 weeks when we arrived for work, we’d head straight outside to the back of the factory where we’d lounge with our backs to the wall by the railroad tracks and sleep, eat a snack or two and talk about taking grandiose trips out west to Arizona and California. Then one morning out there by the tracks with my buddy fast asleep and me reading the morning sports section, I heard his father’s riveting words “working hard boys”. That was my first firing. His father is still alive and in his 90’s and my friend’s two brothers now run the company. I say keep Shildt for now…..but on a very short leash.