Six Degrees of Separation: Charlie Manuel

Six Degrees of Separation from Charlie Manuel

Are you kidding me? I’m not a Phillies fan, far from it. So how in G-d’ green earth did I get myself into something like this. Well there’s this girl named Cindy and I might be 64 but hell, I’m not dead. Besides she is a very talented writer and she has gone out of her way to help this old gut on more than one occasion. So OK, Here goes.

I’m finally getting the hang of this. Let’s take Carlos Lee. This is a bad boy hitter not to be confused with Derrick Lee who also hits for a ton. Derrick plays for the Cubs who may never win a World Series in this century. Now Carlos who swings the lumber for Houston (gee, I hope I didn’t get these two guys mixed up and I’m way too lazy to check it out) has a connection, ever so slight to Charlie Manuel.

Carlos Lee played with Carl Everett for the 2003 Chicago White Sox. Carl Everett played with Charlie Hough for the 1994 Florida Marlins. Charlie Hough played with Charlie Manuel for the 1974 Los Angeles Dodgers. See how easy that was. (Boy am I dense)

Jason Marquis has the most wins in the majors right now with 11. Not too shabby when he calls Coors Field his home park. He’s connected to Charlie Manuel this way. Jason played with Tom Glavine with the 2001 Atlanta Braves. Glavine (Traitor) played with Jerry Royster for the 1988 Braves and low and behold Jerry Royster played with Charlie Manuel on the 1975 Los Angeles Dodgers. Are you getting to see a pattern forming here?

Lets move on to Francisco (K-Rod) Rodriguez (yea) and see if we can find some connection to Charlie. Oh No, can’t find one so I’ll make one up. Charlie’s sisters college roommates brother’s dad stopped at the same gas station in LA where at the next gas pump K-Rod’s aunties brother in law son was in a frenzy because he couldn’t find the tickets for game 3 of last years NLCS at Dodger Stadium. When asked what he was looking for he replied “I see your Swartz is as big as mine”.)If you believe that I have some bridge property to sell you in Brooklyn.

David Wright, now surely there’s a personal connection to Charlie Manuel right? None that I can find so I’ll make up one that is definitely more to be fact than fiction. David’s hitting instructor is Howard Johnson. HOJO’s manager in 1986 was Davey Johnson. Davey became a manager with the Los Angeles Dodgers and as we know at some time in the mid 70’s Charlie played for those same Dodgers. There you go and I didn’t need any reference guide for that one.

Now we find Johan Santana, the Mets ace and Charlie’s nightmare every time the Phillies have to face this guy. This too will ultimately come back to the Dodgers. Johan was a teammate with Ruben Sierra while playing for the 2006 Minnesota Twins. Ruben played with Tom Paciorek (now that’s a name out of the past) for the 1986 Texas Rangers (they were pretty good back then; they just couldn’t beat the Yankees). Of course Tommy played with Charlie with the 1974 Dodgers. (What a surprise).

Three more to go.

Let’s see what I can dig up on Freddy (soon to be traded) Sanchez. Freddy played with 100 year old Jose Mesa for the 2005 Pittsburgh Pirates. Mesa played with Rick Dempsey for the 1992 Baltimore Orioles and low and behold Rick Dempsey played with Charlie Manuel for the 1972 Minnesota Twins. It would have been a lot easier to say that Charlie managed Jose Mesa in Philadelphia a couple of years back but that would have been taking the low road.

Moving on with this assignment I had the good fortune to draw Miguel (how old am I?) Tejada. Let’s see where this goes. This is a good one. Miguel (We’re good friends now) sang with NO I mean played with Kenny Rogers for the 1999 Oakland Athletics. Kenny who is old as dirt played with Charlie Hough for the 1989 Texas Rangers. Well you already know the connection to Charlie Hough and Charlie Manuel if you were paying any attention to this at all but there’ just a little twist to this one. No there isn’t, gotcha, both Charlie’s played for the 1974 Dodgers. You are so easy.

Finally last but not least Ryan Zimmerman. This one is very cool. Lot’s of new names. Ryan played with Tomakazu Okha (are you kidding me?) for the 2005 Washington Nationals (they really sucked). Okha (are you serious?) played with Tim Raines (now that was a five tool player) for the 2001 Montreal Expos. Tim played with another great player, Graig Nettles for the 1988 Expos and here’s the connection to Charlie. Nettles played with Charlie Manuel for the 1969 Minnesota Twins.

So ends this monumental task of trying to put together people from different generations and put them on the same playing surface today. In lieu of tonight’s all-star game this turned out to be a fun assignment even though I waited to the last minute to complete it and whined like a baby because I actually had to do some research.

Again, keep in mind, I’ll do just about anything for a cute babe, no offense Cindy but you qualify on all counts.

Vegas Rich.