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There wouldn’t be as much turmoil if MM was given input on what type of players he would like to have on the 25 man.
I haven’t commented on here in a while but some things stuck out with me…
1. In Mark’s article he directly stated Hicks was unhappy about the treatment from Norris. Then he tweets today that its not a big deal. I’m not saying Hicks is a liar, I’m just saying I don’t believe him.
2. 3 straight years of locker room turmoil but none of this is Matheny’s fault? Really Crannie? You’re gonna go with that?
3. If anyone thinks Matheny has zero say in how the roster is made up…well I’ve got some ocean front property in South Dakota for sale.
Sad, but true BH. Tony had input. MM does not. On the 2012 team they had leadership with experienced pros like Holliday, Furcal, Beltran, Lohse, Westbrook, an injured Carpenter, Motte, etc. Want to compare that to the changes over time that now brings us Fowler, Pham, Wong, Ozuna, etc.? Totally different types of individuals.
Oops. I made a typo. Dang it!
My first point should have read like this:
1. In Mark’s article he directly stated Hicks was unhappy about the treatment from Norris. Then Hicks tweets today that its not a big deal. I’m not saying Hicks is a liar, I’m just saying I don’t believe him.
Sounds like a practical solution. Make Matheny the GM, too. Then he can have all the players he wants and none of those trouble-makers. After all, it worked for Whitey. 😉
Seriously, as far as I can tell, bringing up Matheny’s input on the roster has nothing to do with the issue of this thread.
Or, is Hicks joining the list, too? Hmmmm…
New Bernie article at The Athletic.
“Miklasz: It’s difficult to understand why the Cardinals are standing by Mike Matheny”
A number of interesting points were made. I will share just two.
“As a followup, a Cardinals’ source told me that Norris has pushed Hicks to get to meetings on time, adhere to the specified dress code on road trips, and put in the proper amount of training. At no point, the source insists, did any of Norris’ actions cross the line into bullying.”
“Multiple team sources told me Cardinals executives were not pleased with Matheny’s expressed enthusiasm for having one player report on other players.”
I wouldn’t put credence in anything the obsessed Bernie says (or quotes from “multiple sources”).
He’s gone over the edge with his hatred of our manager.I have listed (in my opinion) the pluses and minuses of MM several times. Bernie is viciously negative about him all the time. If you read what people on other forums are saying, even the pure anti Matheny crowd is saying Bernie had lost all credibility with his constant, obsessed personal attacks. Including on MM’s character, his personality, his faith, etc. It’s gone way too far.
It should not matter how one feels about Bernie, as the two segments I cited are not opinion-based.
The first provided interesting detail that suggests Hicks was not hazed. That would seem to be a positive.
The second indicates Bernie spoke with more than one team source who expressed unhappiness over Matheny’s comments about using Norris as a spy.
It appears that you cannot attack the message so are going after the messenger by essentially calling him a liar.
The FO must like that fact that Matheny takes so much heat…. it keeps it off of them. The real culprits in this rapidly growing turmoil. Ya can’t make good lemonade from a bunch of sour lemons. Key word: lemons… as in not working.
Ny, I cannot imagine the front office is liking any of this as it does not reflect positively on the organization as a whole. The circle of individuals in leadership roles is small.
“He has the best intentions for me,” Hicks told the Post-Dispatch about Norris. “I think he’s nudging me in the right direction. That’s the best way to put it. I’m a rookie. I need guys guiding me. He actually does care about me. I know that. There are times, though, when he or anyone basically says, ‘You should know better.’ I’m learning from that.”
The advice has ranged from clubhouse politics about when to play music and who gets to play music, to road-trip rules. On this past road trip, Hicks arrived at the ballpark in shorts. That is against team rules decided on in spring training. He was fined $100 for the violation, and he took a ribbing from teammates.
I’m glad I took the side of the story that I did after reading this. Unbelievable how many wanted to twist this against Norris and Matheny.
Well, it’s Bernie’s job to rile folks up, so whatever he says probably should be taken with at least a grain of salt.
I still think this acrimonious situation is probably nowhere near the deal that a lot of the media are making it out to be. In fact, both of Saxon’s recent “leaks” have had what appears to be info that was directly conflicted by Derek Goold’s sources (Fowler blocking Matheny’s texts and now this with Hicks). I’m not saying that Saxon is lacking integrity or purposefully wrong but when you read the language in his article on the Hicks situation it’s very clear that there is at least some bias involved.
Main point…if this team was 20 games over .500, none of this would be news worthy. Right now, players, manager and front office are all (rightly) taking some blame for this mess. Improvement is expected and needed, or else I think we’ll see quite a few changes this offseason, including the manager (and rightly so…even though I like Matheny the guy, this is his 7th season and the trend isn’t going greatly in a positive direction. Change at that point is pretty much what is expected).
It’s simply not done to have a player report on other players to the manager.
Not.Done!
It really messes with team cohesion and unity. (I realize that other factors, such as players’ personalities can mess with cohesion as well but that’s not the focus here.)
You should have a team constructed so the vets police the clubhouse and deal with most matters internally. If your team is not constructed as such, then it’s up to the manager to figure how to manage the off-the-field aspects of his players (and staff) so he doesn’t have to resort to one of his players being designated the Team Narc.
Bernie has turned into the Jerry Springer of sports radio. I understand the tendency of sports journalists to defend other sports journalists, but good ones need
not defend bad ones.Onyxgem
Pads, Hicks is not going to say anything but that, to think otherwise is just silly….
Why? Do you think Hicks is lying about wearing shorts and playing his music loud? Why do you believe the previous reporter and his (and others) insinuations over Hicks’ own statement here? Why do you think this is a bigger deal than it is?
I can’t see any of these guys truly getting bullied by a guy like Norris. Also, as I suspected, the “snitching is overblown as well.
The whole thing is way overblown.
It’s just fodder for sensationalists.UConn – I agree with you in principal, but I’ll bet Tony had several veterans as confidants. Maybe Chris Carpenter? AP? LB? MH?
I believe he is saying everything is ok because he is a rookie, even if he is getting bullied and hazed he is not going to come out and say it
The more I read of this the more I realize that Mark Saxon is an a$$hole and should be writing for tabloids.
Cranny,
Whatever ‘The Load’ was doing to manage his clubhouse pretty much remained within the clubhouse. It rarely became ‘airing your dirty laundry in public’ the way this thing has.
Yes, I remember the Ozzie/TLR dust-up (who could forget) and the Rolen/TLR dust-up, so it did happen. But the point remains that none of that involved a player snitching on his teammates. I even remember Will Clark riding J.D. Drew (aka ‘wusscakes’ in my household) pretty good although nothing controversial came out of that.
I agree with the poster who said that the team winning would change our view of this matter. It would. But the team isn’t winning at a level that inspires much confidence in me for post-season success. And that’s what it’s all about.
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