Ron Gardenhire? He a GEENIOUS!
Oct. 13th, 2010 05:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_archfiendWhite Sox-related snark of the day:
While I'm not necessarily opposed to the Twins whaling the tar out of the Yankees in the playoffs one of these days, the Twins are apparently opposed to such an endeavor. Given my sentiments concerning those two teams (Read: "Twins" are to "hate" as "Yankees" are to "despise"), you'd think that Ron Gardenhire and his supposed mastery of small ball (read: field, run the bases intelligently, get some pitching to complement a solid offense) would've pulled this off by now. They didn't. Again. And it's looking more and more like he's a savant only during the regular season while turning into an idiot in October. To wit:
2002: 94-67 regular season; beat Oakland 3-2 in the ALDS, lost to Anaheim 4-1 in the ALCS
2003: 90-72 regular season; lost to the Yankees 3-1 in the ALDS
2004: 92-70 regular season; lost to the Yankees 3-1 in the ALDS
2005: 83-79 regular season: (Chicago White Sox win world series after going 11-1 in the playoffs)
2006: 96-66 regular season; lost to Oakland 3-0 in the ALDS
2007: 79-83 regular season
2008: 88-75 regular season; lost to White Sox in a one-game playoff not counted as postseason
2009: 87-76 regular season: lost to the Yankees 3-0 in ALDS
2010: 94-68 regular season: lost to the Yankees 3-0 in ALDS
Now take a good look at all of that. According to baseball-reference.com, Gardenhire has a lifetime win-loss record of 803-656 with a winning percentage of .550. Nice, huh? Too bad that his postseason record of 6-21 (with a whopping "winning" percentage of .222) and 1-6 record in postseason series clearly delineates that October just isn't his month. Likewise, consider the fact that Ozzie Guillen's lifetime managerial record of 600-535 (.529 percentage) isn't not be as good as Gardenhire's. However, considering that his postseason win-loss of 12-4 (.750) includes as twice as many playoff wins in five less playoff appearances (!) says a lot about Guillen and Gardenhire at the same time - and none of it particularly complementary to Ron, either.
Getting back to the entire Yankees thing: not only has Gardenhire never beat them, but he's especially abysmal facing off against Steinbrenner's Yes-man Brigade: 0-4 in playoff series and a grand total of 2-12 in individual games. Seeing as I especially hate the Bronx Bombers with a passion, I have to wonder if Ron G. is actually secretly on the Yankees payroll. He's certainly done 'em enough favors in the postseason to make you wonder.
While I'm not necessarily opposed to the Twins whaling the tar out of the Yankees in the playoffs one of these days, the Twins are apparently opposed to such an endeavor. Given my sentiments concerning those two teams (Read: "Twins" are to "hate" as "Yankees" are to "despise"), you'd think that Ron Gardenhire and his supposed mastery of small ball (read: field, run the bases intelligently, get some pitching to complement a solid offense) would've pulled this off by now. They didn't. Again. And it's looking more and more like he's a savant only during the regular season while turning into an idiot in October. To wit:
2002: 94-67 regular season; beat Oakland 3-2 in the ALDS, lost to Anaheim 4-1 in the ALCS
2003: 90-72 regular season; lost to the Yankees 3-1 in the ALDS
2004: 92-70 regular season; lost to the Yankees 3-1 in the ALDS
2005: 83-79 regular season: (Chicago White Sox win world series after going 11-1 in the playoffs)
2006: 96-66 regular season; lost to Oakland 3-0 in the ALDS
2007: 79-83 regular season
2008: 88-75 regular season; lost to White Sox in a one-game playoff not counted as postseason
2009: 87-76 regular season: lost to the Yankees 3-0 in ALDS
2010: 94-68 regular season: lost to the Yankees 3-0 in ALDS
Now take a good look at all of that. According to baseball-reference.com, Gardenhire has a lifetime win-loss record of 803-656 with a winning percentage of .550. Nice, huh? Too bad that his postseason record of 6-21 (with a whopping "winning" percentage of .222) and 1-6 record in postseason series clearly delineates that October just isn't his month. Likewise, consider the fact that Ozzie Guillen's lifetime managerial record of 600-535 (.529 percentage) isn't not be as good as Gardenhire's. However, considering that his postseason win-loss of 12-4 (.750) includes as twice as many playoff wins in five less playoff appearances (!) says a lot about Guillen and Gardenhire at the same time - and none of it particularly complementary to Ron, either.
Getting back to the entire Yankees thing: not only has Gardenhire never beat them, but he's especially abysmal facing off against Steinbrenner's Yes-man Brigade: 0-4 in playoff series and a grand total of 2-12 in individual games. Seeing as I especially hate the Bronx Bombers with a passion, I have to wonder if Ron G. is actually secretly on the Yankees payroll. He's certainly done 'em enough favors in the postseason to make you wonder.
