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10/04/2006: "Marlins Fallout"

As you might expect, the unusual circumstances surrounding the Marlins firing of manager Joe Girardi and the immediate hiring of Fredi Gonzalez as his replacement has a lot of people talking. Dan LeBatard, a Miami Herald writer who knows the situation as well as anyone, has a good perspective on the situation.

Was Girardi's firing fair? Not from the outside. But the people most qualified to answer that question are on the inside. They have more data than we do, more invested in this than we do and more reasons to want the relationship to work than we do. Within reason, fair is what your boss says it is in just about every other workplace. And if Loria, team president David Samson and general manager Larry Beinfest -- a management team that can be clumsy and amateurish but does have a championship on its résumé -- say Girardi wasn't doing his job the way they wanted it done, then he wasn't doing it the way they wanted it done.

ESPN's Page 2, never one to let a opportunity pass to take a poke at someone, skewers Jeffrey Loria pretty well.

Nothing inspires employees to work harder than the constant fear of losing their jobs. That's why I've gone through four managers in just five years. Keeps them on their toes!

We haven't seen the end of this one ...