Don't retract so speedily, Mick -- what if the Reds catch fire under the new manager and go on to have an unbeaten second half? You could say it was meant to be!

And rest assured, NFH, if that happens, I WILL say that.

Ah, the beauty of the digital era: you can't run from your statements. They're always somewhere on-line, waiting to be extracted for additional permutations of humiliation.

Although, to your credit, Mick, you at least provided us a link to your erroneous prediction. Without naming names, could you imagine certain members of a certain country's government a) retracting anything AND b) then offering to the humble citizens links to documents where mistakes were made? If so, you've got on an even more active imagination than the one that presented us with such foppery as the Reds winning the World Series.

Gee, Gizzi, I didn't realize you were so familar with Canadian politics. :)

Maybe the Jays can use some of that extra cash to bring Gullet in to serve in the minors. Similar to what they did with Arnsberg. Your organization can't have too many quality coaches.

Hey, don't blame me. I voted for Kodos. And besides: everything depends on what your definition of "is" is.

Wow Maybe this means Adam Dunn will be batting higher than 5th or 6th in the Batting order.

Miley should have been axed on that fact alone.

Be nice, Gitz. I never said the Reds would WIN the World Series, just that they'd PLAY in it.

It's funny, at the end of that screed, I listed nine things, any seven of which I said needed to happen for the Reds to do what I said they'd do. Looking back, I think if five of the nine had happened, the Reds would be at or near .500. In fact, only ONE of those nine things has happened -- "One of Griffey and Kearns must stay healthy." (Both have, but I didn't think to add, "and in the major leagues.") It's a miracle they're only 18.5 out.

Mick, Mick, Mick. Let's look at a few of my Greatest Hits. From the Blue Jays Roundtable Preview:

Magpie: Dave Bush... Every time I saw this young man work, I thought I was looking at someone who was born knowing how to pitch. The last Toronto pitcher who impressed me in a similar way was Jimmy Key.

Then there was my Arizona Diamondbacks Preview:

People, this is a disgrace. Its one thing to be bad if it looks like you're trying to be good someday. If you can say, look we have a bunch of young players, and someday... Did you see this lineup? Craig Counsell! Royce Clayton! Jose Cruz! Imagine what it must be like to have to cheer for these guys.

Not to mention my shrewd analysis of the team with the best record in the entire major leagues, in my ill-fated Chicago White Sox Preview

I really can’t see them winning more than 88 games, and that’s if everything goes right with the pitching. And something always goes wrong with pitching, somewhere, somehow.

You know, if I'd just said all this stuff in a bar somewhere back in April....

Ah, but Magpie, it's always easier to live down a bad prediction when you say someone won't do something and they do (the D-Backs not sucking) ... whereas I have said someone WILL do something they clearly will not. (Unless, as Pistol suggests, they finish 92-0 for Jerry Narron (actually, to get the Wild Card as I predicted, 65-27 would probably do it).

Someone, I think he writes for a KC paper, did a study of managers based on their 2004 performances and Miley came out as the best manager in the majors. Studies of managers are incredibly hard and inevitable flawed, but the way this guy did it made a lot of sense.

It seems like Miley had lost the clubhouse though and it was probably time to get rid of him. It's a messy situation in Cincinnati and there's little doubt that franchise is one of the worst-run in baseball.

Last week I was down at the Prentice Cup with Coach and company when Coach referenced something he believed came from Earl Weaver: "a manager determines the outcome to approximately 5 games per season". I take no credit for such an interesting assertion but I thought it would be a decent addition to this thread.