On losing Al Pedrique

Yesterday, we learned that Honest Al Pedrique - scorned by the Yankee brain trust in its Cooperstown-driven, managerial Ed McMahon Star Search - has accepted a first base coaching job with the Oakland A's. 

Good for him. 

Pedrique managed the always-surprising Railriders of Scranton, Pa., for the last two seasons - winning two divisional crowns, a Governor's Cup and an International League All-Star game. All the so-called "Baby Bombers" currently being touted by the YES-Murdoch sound-and-fury machine navigated their post-puberty growth spurts in the comfy corners of Al's Happy Clubhouse. You hate to lose him. My guess is that Al Pedrique knows more about the game of baseball than every Wall Street-rejected pencil-neck that ever crunched WARs  and x-FIPs in the Moneyball Era. But obviously, he was going nowhere with the Yankees.

For the record, Al did manage once in the majors. In 2004, he briefly ran the fifth place Arizona Diamondbacks, going 22-61 and being replaced by - wait for this - Wally Backman... (yes, the one whose sordid personal history, once exposed, caused him to be fired without managing a game.) Al's managerial claim to fame, or infamy, was intentionally walking Barry Bonds throughout a three-game September home stand to keep Bonds from hitting his 700th career HR in Arizona. It pissed off people, especially the network poohbahs who were broadcasting the games. But Al stuck to his guns, and the end result was - well - two years in Scranton.

Supposedly, by not calling him for even a fake managerial interview, the Yankees were gently signaling to Al that he should fuck off. So, he's gone, and yet another baseball team has just signed someone with an intrinsic knowledge of our farm system, just days before the Rule 5 draft. At 57, in a profession increasingly skewing toward forty-somethings, Al Pedrique probably was done in the Yankee organization. Bummer. Wish him the best. If the Yankees win in 2018, I can't help but think he'll have played a role.