A CITIZEN'S BLOG

I suspect many of us went to bed last night not knowing who our President was … kind of reminds you of four years ago, doesn’t it?

I spent the morning looking at the news results and here are a few thoughts I had:

• Bush is almost certainly the winner of the election. I don’t see Democrats scraping together enough votes to pull Ohio out.
• Amazing how few states changed hands: just New Hampshire and probably Iowa and New Mexico.
• The results here in Pennsylvania were interesting. I looked up my old polling place and saw that Bush won 54%-46%, which is very close. Here in Allegheny County, Kerry won handily, but in my township 70% of voters supported Bush. It looks like formerly Republican Southeastern Pennsylvania is now a Democratic stronghold, while the Republican Party continues to do better and better in the Pittsburgh Metro area.

Enough politics … as I said, the Phillies were likely to take care of the Manager’s job after the election and it seems likely that Charlie Manuel is the man. According to the Inquirer's Todd Zolecki, the Phillies recalled Manuel and it isn’t likely that they want a follow-up interview. I bet that they’ll offer the job to Manuel today and make the announcement Thursday or Friday.

So what do I think of Manuel? He seems like a nice guy and I’m sure that he’ll get along better with the Phillies than Bowa. This is a veteran club. They don’t need someone riding them for mistakes and screaming at them as a motivational tool. They are (or should be) plenty motivated. Given Manuel’s relationship with Thome, I hope Thome will feel more comfortable in 2005.

I don’t know much about Manuel’s philosophy, but I hope he is wedded to the “Moneyball” philosophy of drawing walks and clubbing homers. His Indians teams seemed to approach the game that way, so I’m hoping that he’ll embrace the confluence of the cozy confines of Citizen’s, as well as the Phillies personnel, to try and bash the Phillies to a pennant. Manuel doesn’t strike me as a “bunt the runner over” kind of guy the way Jim Leyland, a career National League manager, does.

Probably a good choice.

Speaking of Leyland, I was surprised to see him back out of the Mets job. I think he took one look at that mess and realized that was a career-killing job if there ever was one.

Hardball Times' Ben Jacobs has some thoughts on potential trades. The two that caught my eye were the likelihood of the Cubs sending Sammy Sosa to the Mets and the potential for seeing one of the Big Three in Oakland dealt. I wonder if the Phillies would consider swinging a deal for Mulder or (on the cheap) Zito. Getting Hudson would cost a pretty penny.

The Sosa deal could be a big one: Sammy's been on the decline these last two years, but you have to wonder if playing in New York would re-energize him and give him new purpose. I don't see the Mets upgrading much in the off-season, but getting Sammy would make them a lot more dangerous.

More later ...