Are minor league managers held to the same standard?

In my opinion, the guy is a moron and shouldn't be coaching kids trying to get to the big leagues.

He should take his act to a prison "yard" and see how long his "buddies" would put up with his sophomoric act.

He needs a 5 game suspension, a mental evaluation and then be fired. Nobody bought a ticket to watch him.

That was hilarious, I liked it.

In a moral sense, there is a problem and Been and Dad04 are probably on the right track. However..... on a creativity and artistic note many critics would say the coach put together a very flowing performance that was emotionally passionate and worthy of an award.

What I though was ironic, was the thread last week on the Rice dugout attitude. While the media seems to rip the Rice antics, these announcers, and I'm sure many others, found the minor league coaches act funny in a sic sense. Baseball is a very emotional game where this coach who may be a great teacher and good coach was put a different emotional plane because of his passion. The only thing he is guilty of is letting that other side out, and I'll bet everyone on this site is guilty of "letting the bad boy/girl out" at some point of their life. The only difference is that he was caught on tape. You cannot control human emotion, you can only hope to contain it.

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Originally posted by rz1:
... on a creativity and artistic note many critics would say the coach put together a very flowing performance that was emotionally passionate and worthy of an award.

Boorish behavior at its finest. This coach can always fall back on the "I was just trying to get my team's attention" or "Light a fire under them" excuse and so forth.

IMHO - Billy Martin invented this type of routine and I thought it was old the first time I saw Martin do it. They even made commercials featuring Martin's tired and anti-social schtick. I think Martin was also an alcoholic so maybe this coach should check into a 12-step program before it gets any further out of control. Lou Pinnella practices this to a certain extent but this was the first time I saw someone actually try and outdo Billy Martin.

I don't get how somebody can actually do something that goofy for that long.

Well, this happened here in Lexington. I didn't know anything about it though until my son just called a few minutes ago after seeing the clip and his friend who plays for the Tourists sitting in the dugout watching his manager go off. My son said the guy has received a seven game suspension and a $1,000 fine.

He claims the umps were terrible the entire series. I was there Thursday night and I didn't see any controversial calls.

Anyway, we all loose our tempers from time to time. The key to being an adult is knowing how to express that without projecting you're an idiot or putting others in harm's way.

Mik is a good manager, and a good guy. Yeah he went off the chain a bit, but I heard the rockies scout in the stands was going nuts about calls as well as balls and strikes. The pick-off at 2nd, was clearly an out as everyone left the field, with the lex guys coming out, when the ump was like no, he's safe. That was it!

Tonights local news had Joe saying he went to bat for his team. "it's a game of frustration and emotions" "I had to take a stand" after a series of blown calls. He did agree the base toss was better than his slide. He stands behind what he did, and doesn't need anger management.

Don't be so quick to judge purely on the clip.

Mik also pointed out the announcers booth started playing "You've lost that lovin feeling"

In the local newspaper:

“I don’t think I ever lost total control, though it may look like it,” said Mikulik. “It was just frustration, and I obviously went a little bit too far.

“I apologize to fans and to the umpires for my actions, and I regret what happened.”

South Atlantic League officials were expected to make an announcement later Monday about Mikulik.

After an early afternoon interview with the Citizen-Times, Mikulik said he had been told by the Colorado Rockies organization - the parent club of the Tourists - not to make any more public comments about the incident.

According to Tourists assistant general manager Chris Smith, that decision cancelled plans for live interviews Tuesday with GMA, MSNBC and Inside Edition.

Mikulik

02^04mom ...

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... he went off the chain a bit,

No offense, but that just might be the understatement of the decade. But I will give him credit tho ... he never touched the umpires and I too thought some of his antics were pretty clever (cleaning the plate to let the umpire know where it was ... that certainly looked scripted even if it was spontaneous).

I think the manager that I witnessed manhandling a player falls into a different realm, tho, because he is guilty of assault. (He allegedly thought our catcher hit his player when in fact it was the opposite, but that still doesn't excuse him.) I don't feel he should enjoy any special privileges and if Delmon Young gets suspended for 50 games for his bat flipping episode, this manager should get at least equal discipline.

rz1 ...

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I'll bet everyone on this site is guilty of "letting the bad boy/girl out" at some point of their life.

If memory serves me correctly, I have lost my cool a few times in the past (this is where everybody who knows me would laugh) but I can honestly say that I have never never let the "bad girl" out that would have behaved like that. Not that I am faultless or always even tempered, but I learned early on that behaving that way just gets you a "spanking", so I never let it happen no matter how much I wanted to. I also wasn't paid to teach young men how to play the game, how to respect the game, and how to handle bad calls, bad series, whatever his excuses were for his behavior. I generally believe that an incident like this 'tantrum' is not a one-time-only incident because I believe our character directs how we behave in negative circumstances and that those behaviors generally take the same or a similar form over time. What's the old expression ... sports don't build character, they show it ... or something like that?

If managers aren't held to a higher standard, what are the players to discern from that?

Just enjoying reading the different responses ... especially in light of what I witnessed last week at our son's game.

I hate to admit it, but I found it hilarious. Nobody could watch it and think the umpires or any player were at physical risk (okay, the flying bats might tweek that one), and I took it as pure show, for entertainment purposes. Not exactly a role model for Little League. It looked to me like the umpires simply took it in stride. Earl Weaver would be proud of manager and umps alike.

Having said that, I will guarantee you that 100% of his players loved it. Have you ever seen players react negatively to an outburst like that? Compare it to the player grabbing described earlier in this thread, which is truly scary. Whatever angst his players had for the umps at that point, it all had to be totally drained by that performance.

I tip my hat to Mik.

It was apparent that the umpire was showing deference to Roger Clemens son at second base at the expense of his players.

Bily Martin learned from one of the best, Casey Stengel.

A manager has to protect his players.

On the issue of opposing mangers and/or coaches manhandling opposing players, there seems to be a lot of this going on.

A manager or coach should control his own players and leave the control of the opposing players to the opposing coach or manager.

quote:

but I learned early on that behaving that way just gets you a "spanking"

FBM, great quote!

I'll probably get bashed for this and it opens up another whole can of worms, but maybe that's whats missing with some of today's youth.

I know, I'm just a crochety old man.

After being berated for hardly covering the story, the Avl paper has alot online here

The sports editor ends his story "Tourists fans probably weren't offended. It wouldn't surprise me if they give Mikulik a hero's welcome the next time he takes his position in the third base coaching box."

I've been going to Tourist games since my college days, brought my boys since they were tots. I expect we will be in the stands when Joe comes back.

Another take on Mik, Family Man

02^04mom ...

I trust your judgement on this because I am 3000 miles away and have no first hand experience with the man, tho we have a friend who was on his team in '04. Never heard anything negative about him. And I too found parts of the clip humorous and have seen instances where managers were applauded by the local fans when they returned to the field.

I would just hope that instances like this don't lead to guys like the Cal league manager who thinks it is okay to assault a player ... whether on his team or another team. There is no place for it in the game, as far as I am concerned. And we have read nothing out here about the manager getting suspended or fined ... as far as we know, the ejection was all that happened. His actions were far worse than those of "Mik" but he seems to be above reproach. Just have to see what happens.

He could have killed himself with that belly flop slide into second base.

Phil Garner tried to copy him last night

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He could have killed himself with that belly flop slide into second base.

My sons little league coach tried that in a sliding demoinstration and stood up with his pinky finger bent at 110 degrees.

I was at this game and the ump clearly missed the call on Clemens at second. The tantrum was actually very entertaining and funny. The Legends broadcasters kept playing different sound bites and music to all the antics the coach was doing which made it even more hilarious. Nobody was threatened or hurt and I think it was nothing more than an intense coach venting. Actually very entertaining and funny.