By John McMullen
The Philadelphia Phillies can’t win.
It’s not because Ed Wade and Pat Gillick handed Charlie Manuel a rotation that boasts Jon Lieber as the headliner.
It’s not because the rest of the rotation reads: Brett Myers, Cory Lidle, Ryan Madson and Gavin Floyd.
It’s the Double Switch!
Poor old, dim-witted Charlie just can’t figure out the most perplexing move in all of baseball.
That’s right ... Charlie doesn’t know how to flip-flop the batting order when Rheal Cormier comes in to give up a three-run blast.
But, please don’t blame Charlie ... Few in America can decipher the mysteries of the double switch.
Granted I can, but much like Bill Conlin and Angelo Cataldi, I was weaned on National League baseball and boast an IQ hovering above 60.
Not everyone can have those kinds of credentials.
Stephen Hawking?
Forget about it, He may be a genius but he was brought up watching American League ball.
The geeks at Yale, Harvard and MIT?
Nah ... They might cure cancer someday but that’s nothing like squeezing an extra inning out of Aaron Fultz by inserting Alex S. Gonzalez at the same time.
That’s magic.
And Charlie Manuel is no magician.
-You can reach John McMullen at jmcmullen1@comcast.net.
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