Over at U.S.S. Mariner, blogger Dave Cameron tried to guess the purpose of the Mariners' news conference this morning:
I don't know what the news is, but here are my guesses.60% - Ichiro extension
25% - Bavasi/Hargrove extensions
10% - Trade Announcement
5% - Free Nintendo Wii for Derek
An extension for Ichiro would make my day.
He might have added: 0% -- Mike Hargrove is quitting
Because when's the last time a manager resigned with his team riding a seven-game winning streak? Probably never. The first person who comes to my mind is Eddie Stanky. A fairly successful manager in the 1950s with the Cardinals, and in the 1960s with the White Sox, Stanky was hired as Rangers manager in June 1977. In his first game, the Rangers beat the Twins 10-8.
Then he quit. Stanky had left his job as baseball coach at South Alabama -- he'd turned the Jaguars into national powers -- and that's where his heart still was. As he explained, "After the excitement calmed down, I started getting lonesome and homesick."
But this is nothing like that. Hargrove is an established major league manager. With the exception of 2004, he has managed every season since the middle of the 1991 season, when he took over in Cleveland.
Maybe this is the cynic in me, but I can't help but wonder whether there's something we haven't been told yet. I worry that Hargrove's been diagnosed with some serious illness. All we can do is hope that's not the case. Then there's the possibility that he wants to quit while he's ahead. Hargrove's past six teams -- four in Baltimore, two in Seattle -- finished in fourth place, most of them with records well below .500.
But Hargrove's 2007 Mariners are riding high. They're in second place with a 44-33 record. Can they maintain this pace, though? The Mariners have the fourth-best record in the American League, but only the eighth-best run differential. Maybe this particular Mariner knows when it's time to jump ship.
Rob Neyer
