"Those who cannot remember the past..."

Los Angeles Dodger fans are starting to discover the glories of Grady Little. To every Dodger fan who's concerned about the fact that Grady left a struggling pitcher in too long, I say this - get used to it. You'll see it again.

This is standard Grady Little operating procedure. That's how he manages. And though I'm not the only one who has commented on it, I have commented on it. Here's an example, from September 20, 2003, less than month BEFORE game 7 at Yankee Stadium.

Grady's biggest single weakness as a manager, and negatively re-inforced by Tony Cloninger, is his inability to get a pitcher out before damage is done rather than waiting too long. He's been a master of closing the barn door after not only the horses, but the cows, sheep and half of the chickens, have gone...

It was the biggest concern for many of us when his first move as Manager of the Red Sox was to fire the pitching coach and bring in a drinking buddy, Tony Cloninger, to fill that role. Cloninger's first comments were to the effect that a) he didn't use a computer and b) "the hitters will tell you when the pitcher needs to come out." Which means, of course, that they didn't pull pitchers until after they'd gone too long. He did it over and over and over again.

Now, that's a problem for Dodger fans...