Hating on Cecil Cooper

Mismanagement is a common theme among today's wars. Hillary Clinton mismanaged her way out off the presidency. Doc Rivers may mismanage the Celtics out of an NBA championship. Mismanagement of oil has led to a shortage in the product. Mismanagement of money is leaving Americans' broke.

Cecil Cooper mismanaged the Astros out of competition yesterday at my first baseball game in a long time. My buddy Carlos rang me up to attend earlier in the day. The seats were the best I had ever had, located in the second row just behind the Brewers' dugout on the third base side.

In the end, the seven dollar beers were not the only reason to cry. Brandon Backe was shellacked like a redheaded step child with a beer gut, battered for five runs over four innings. He never got a break, either; The first inning gave the Brewers a one run lead. The Astros managed to take their only lead by score of 3-1 after tying it up in the second inning and plating two in the third. However, Backe's bad performance swept them back under the tide again. The Brewers took a 5-3 with four runs in the fourth inning, including three dingers. The most frustrating was a pop fly shot off the Crawford Box foul pole in left field, a dinky Mike Cameron homer the like of which have not been seen before.


The very next frame, the Brewers added two against Tim Byrdak. I take full credit for jinxing my own pitcher here; As Byrdak entered the game, I leaned over to my buddy Carlos and informed him that Byrdak hadn't given up a run all year.

One of the key moments in the game in the sixth inning. Cecil Cooper called in Wesley Wright to start the inning, and the young lefty did fine work as he struck out Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder. Astros Manager Cecil Cooper decided to reward his young player by pulling him for Chris Sampson.

Now, I understand baseball dynamics quite well. Righty Right or Lefty Lefty is generally a superior matchup to righty left or lefty righty. However, there are just some scenarios where that sort of playing of the percentages just does not apply. It reminds me a bit of Mr. Burns pulling Ken Griffey, JR, for Homer Simpson, in order to get a right handed bat in the game. In this case, Wesley Wright struck out two of the best hitting Brewers and was forced from the game by a guy that has underperformed not just all of this year but most of last year as well.

As expected, the potent Astros lineup hit back. I helped as much as I could, yelling at Mike Parra and Carlos Villanueva until they threw balls in the dirt. I had never been close enough for anyone to hear me before. It was a joy to watch Parra chuck em in the dirt.

Another of the key moments of the game came in that inning, when Carlos Lee drove home Lance Berkman but got caught off of second base for an out. Had he stayed put, Ty Wigginton's home run would have plated him for the tie. Instead, the Astros wound up with a 7-6 ballgame.


In the top of the seventh, the ump threw out Brad Ausmus and Cecil Cooper and let Mike Cameron off the hook for not one, not two but THREE pickoff tags. The crowd chanted everything from BULLS%$ to You Suck.

The Brew crew stuck up three insurance runs in the eighth and the game was more or less over.
Credit Cecil Cooper for sticking up for his guys, but let him have it for screwing the pooch in terms of management. Even without the terrible umpiring and the poor decision making, the Brewers probably still would have taken this one. That said, a manager should be aware of his best guns and when to use them. Wesely Wright threw eight beautiful pitches. Would it really have hurt to let him throw a few more and see if they looked just as good?