Yes, the ever so debated topic amongst Angel fans. Well lets get into this a little bit. I’m NOT here to really talk about whether or not if he should get fired following the 2018 season. What I am here to do is to just talk about Scioscia and his presence as manager.
Scioscia took over the Angel managerial spot when I was just over a year old in 2000. Coming back for his 19th season as the head guy, he is easily the longest tenured manager in the sport today, the second longest tenured coach in American Professional sports behind Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs. So what’s happened in the Scioscia era?
3 Pitching coaches: Bud Black, Mike Butcher, and Charles Nagy
4 Bench Coaches: Joe Maddon, Ron Roenicke, Rob Picciolo, and Dino Ebel
5 Hitting Coaches: Mickey Hatcher, Jim Eppard, Don Baylor, Dave Hansen, and Eric Hinske
FIVE Summer Olympics
Wikipedia.com was Launched
We elected our first African American President
Gas Cost Per Gallon in 2000: $1.26
Average Income in 2000: $40,343.00
….. And so so much more
So yea the world and the US have gone through a ton in the Scioscia Era. Most fans outside of the fanbase skip directly to criticizing Scioscia for the job he’s done and the team itself for sticking with him. However, those close to the team AKA the fans have fought over this topic for virtually my whole life. Why? Part of me wants to say that he is getting unfairly criticized because most managers in sports unless they are of legendary status such as Tony Larussa or Gregg Popovic are not tenured as long as Sciascia has been. After all, he has lead us to 6 AL West titles, the franchise’s first World Series and has an overall .538 winning % as manager. So yea he has been a “winning” manager in his tenure. He has overperformed on many teams, squeezing every bit of production out of teams such as even the World Series team that no one ever predicted to win it all, or most recently this past 2017 season. Over half of the planned Opening Day starting pitchers were on the DL for much of the year and for most of the season (before the trades) Trout and Simmons were the only two productive bats in the lineup.
But the other part of me wants to say that in 18 years, with the talent he has had on some of the teams he has heavily underperformed or even that he is still here because owner, Arte Moreno, is simply too attached to him. He has been here too long and even though he has done a lot for the organization, every business, team, organization needs a change of face. You just need a new/fresh set of ideas, passions, beliefs.
Like I said, I’m not here to talk about whether or not he should be let go after the 2018 season. That is a whole other fight/argument that I will write about and upload here soon (and trust me I have a stance on this, I just won't say it now).
This article is VERY unorganized and unplanned but that just felt more genuine to me. I want to hear from you though. Angel Fans reach out to me by either commenting below, tweeting us @WPB_podcast, or emailing us at beattheshiftbaseball@gmail.com. Use those platforms to just talk to me about Scioscia. I’m a baseball history geek. Just talk to me about your favorite or least favorite memory of him, of the team in his era, or anything you really want to talk about.
