Nationals' manager Riggleman resigns

[kaldaniels]

Bum move by Riggleman, but my gosh is the media bending over backward to rake him over the coals.

[Blitz Dorsey]

Bum move by Riggleman, but my gosh is the media bending over backward to rake him over the coals.

I don't know man. When those with prestigious jobs (not that being the Nats' manager is exactly top rung, but it's still one of only 30 MLB managerial jobs in the world) do something really stupid, I think the media should rake them over the coals. This ranks up there with one of the dumber things I have ever seen a coach/manager do in all my years following sports. Talk about someone with a big ego and a lot of stubbornness. Then again, I can understand it considering his illustrious career as a manager. Oh wait, he has the worst record all-time for any manager who has managed 10+ years according to the Boswell story.

The sad thing is I bet even Riggleman already regrets the decision and wishes he could take it back. Like I said earlier, he'll never manage again ... and that has nothing to do with any media backlash. Baseball people now think he's a flake. Good luck with all that.

[cumberlandreds]

Bum move by Riggleman, but my gosh is the media bending over backward to rake him over the coals.

I have heard quite a few take up for him. Some guys on ESPN radio were the other day. IMO, when you have the overall record Riggleman does you have no leverage whatsoever. He bluffed them and they called it. The Nats did just fine this weekend without him. Two out of three against the White Sox.
BTW,Earl Weaver is still alive and available.

[redsmetz]

I have heard quite a few take up for him. Some guys on ESPN radio were the other day. IMO, when you have the overall record Riggleman does you have no leverage whatsoever. He bluffed them and they called it. The Nats did just fine this weekend without him. Two out of three against the White Sox.

I think Boswell was correct in laying out that Riggleman made a horrible miscalculation. Had he brought the Nats through the season in the fashion they've been going thus far, management would have been hard put to not extend him.

Boswell wrote:

Yet he disdained an obvious alternative, one that, with a run of luck, might have brought him a very happy ending. Why not try to take a Washington baseball team to a winning record for the second time since 1953? Or come close. Then, no team on Earth could, or would want to, deny him a new contract. In ’12, he probably would have Stephen Strasburg and Adam LaRoche back from injury as well as, perhaps, more free agents. Rig says he’s never had the horses. If he did, he’d show ’em. Now, just as he might actually have gotten ’em, even if granted grudgingly, he probably ended his managerial career.

Very possibly, this will be best for the Nationals. It's doubtful that Riggleman would be the manager to ultimately take them in to the promised land, if they should ever arrive, but he could have had a longer tenure and better success in the long run.