Philadelphia Magazine: Inside the Mind of a … Genius?

“For three years, the media and fans have hammered Phillies manager Charlie Manuel for being a bumbling, stumbling idiot. Funny. His players think he’s brilliant.” (Dallas Green stomps feet uncontrollably)

Manuel’s Phillies were a few days into spring training. Players arrived each morning and cantered into the clubhouse with a certain lift, a certain tilt, a certain swing. This year the Phillies start the season as division champions for the first time in a decade and a half. Last season was a sweaty, palpitating ride; the Phillies started by losing 11 of their first 15 games, then had key players — stars Ryan Howard and Chase Utley — fall to injury. The team, which has lost more games in its history than any other team in any other professional sport, earned the dubious distinction of dropping its 10,000th as a franchise.

In those dark days, people across the city mocked the 64-year-old manager. They mocked his congenial demeanor. They mocked his decisions. They mocked his accent, and called him names. “Moron.” “Elmer Befuddled.” “Idiot.”

Then, against all prediction, the Phillies surged late in the season, winning 13 of 17 games and squeaking past the Mets to win their division and head to the playoffs for the first time since Czechoslovakia was a unified country.

And yet, in those bright days, people still mocked Manuel: the gentle moron. The kindly idiot. When it became clear that the Phillies would lose in the playoffs to Colorado, a Daily News columnist wrote, in what must have been a pass at Blue Ridge colloquial, “Sorry, Charlie. You’ve done laid all your eggs in one basket and all you have to do to cook an omelet with them is win three straight games against a team hot enough to melt a cast-iron frying pain [sic].”