The actual announcement appears to be nothing more than academic at this point. Everyone knows that Baltimore Orioles manager Dave Trembley will be relieved of his duties before the game tonight against the Boston Red Sox. The Orioles are mired in their latest losing streak and are sitting at one of the team’s worst records ever something had to be done.
The early word is that thirdbase coach Juan Samuel will take over managerial duties for the foreseeable future, no word on who takes over at thirdbase. Samuel figures to be nothing more than an interim manager and all indications are there will be a full-on search throughout the rest of the season.
Dave Trembley’s tenure is over and this makes me very very sad. Even the most hardened Trembley critic looks at this team’s mind-bogglingly bad numbers and can see that Dave is not really at fault for this team’s performance. Yes, we can gripe about bullpen issues and management but I have a distinct belief that Dave isn’t any better or worse than your average MLB manager when it comes to that.
What did Dave Trembley do well? He carried himself and his team with a sense of class and professionalism through some very tough times. The team never imploded, no player ever chirped off in the media and they never quit on Trembley. That in of itself is a bit of a miracle; let’s face it, we have all seen teams come unhinged over a lot less than this team has faced. The players never blamed the manager, even implicitly. Tejada, Jones, Markakis (et al) always stated that the team’s poor play was on them not the manager. Dave forged a solid working relationship of respect between himself and his players he stuck up for them when he needed to and chastised them when they deserved it.
Dave Trembley was a good man. Sometimes trouble finds good men, Dave left his porch light on.
