D.C. Sports Bog: Charlie Manuel Explains All

Then there were baseball questions. Nine baseball questions. Quiet banter. Finally, out of the blue, Manuel drops this: He’s putting his No. 1 starter, Brett Myers, into the bullpen. There was five seconds of silence. Literally. I timed it later. Then laughter. Much laughter. The beat writers attempted to convince Manuel that he was joking. They stared at each other. Literally, jaws were dropped. One writer offered to bet Manuel $100 that he was kidding. Finally, they realized he was serious, and they launched into the pitching staff inquisition. The two Philly-area TV guys were long gone by this point. We had gone from Manule talking about something he wasn’t going to talk about, to idle baseball chatter, to bombshell news.

It was all too bizarre, and the weirdness continued. When we eventually tracked down Myers, someone asked if he’d be able to throw harder now that he was working in shorter bursts.

“Let me let you direct that question to my arm,” Myers said, putting his arm in the writer’s face.

Umm, yeah.