Tempers Flare as Manager is Fired

Troy, NY: Manager Davey Johnson was fired today; two days after his disparaging remarks about Haymakers management. Johnson will be replaced my third base coach Howard Johnson and new third base coach will be Lee Mazilli. "We needed to make a change," said GM Ken Anderson, "and now was the best time to do it. Howard and Lee will bring this team in the new direction we need to head."

Davey Johnson is fired two days after the team went on their road trip to Dallas-Fort Worth, where they were able to take two of three and Davey called out management to the media. "I don't know how I am supposed to win with this team." he said, "They expect me to do all this winning with what little I have here. It's not like I'm the one making the calls on the trades. You have to go to the front office for that stuff. Those offseason trades were supposed to make our team better. Now look where we are. Now they fire me while the team is on a road trip. Real classy. This is f%#ing bull-s%#t. "

Johnson was referring to the offseason trades of Crawford, Utley and Suzuki, who according to him, were the heart of his speed and defense type of ball-playing. After logging 87 wins and 151 stolen bases last season, the Haymakers have only 52 wins and only 22 stolen bases so far this year. So much seemed to go wrong right off the bat as the attempt to bring better starters to the team backfired. The team had an ERA of 5.18 for their starting pitching in 2007 and this year is 5.05 with a whole new rotation except one starter.

When asked about his firing, Johnson said, "This was not my kind of baseball, and I to be honest I am glad to be gone. Good luck to those guys becuase they have a lot of work to do. I feel sorry for them." Davey says he's going to spend his extra time with family and reading a lot of books. "I have a lot of Harry Potter to catch up with," he said.

When asked about firing the manager during a road trip the GM said, "We felt this was the best time to make a move. We understand Davey has a lot of reading to catch up with, but we have baseball to play."

Although the team has looked bad this season and home attendance has been sparce, the team looks to be poised to make a comeback next season with many extra draft picks and a solid core of players lead by the emergence of Andre Etheir and the rebounding Aubrey Huff. "We are going to have a lot of dicisions to make this offseason," said new manager Howard Johnson, " we need to find places to play for players while building some better blocks for the future."

Mazzilli joins the team as a former manager and teammate of the coaching staff when they were all on the Mets.