Holy Cow! Macha Gets The Ax in Oakland

In a surprising move today, Oakland A’s brass fired manager Ken Macha with two years remaining on his contract. Many A's fans are scratching their heads this afternoon, wondering when the A's headquarters had become drama central. Despite leading the team to its first ALCS since 1992, Macha’s inability to communicate effectively with players was foremost on the list of complaints levied by key personnel. His time with the A's was always tenuous at best; his on-again, off-again merry go-round with Billy Beane subject to intense annual review, with Macha barely surviving the cut each year. His job would typically come down to key veteran players vouching for him, despite his obvious lack of social skills. This year, no such veteran dared throw him a life jacket. Not Kotsay, not Chavez and definitely not Milton Bradley.

However, A's fans really shouldn’t be surprised by this move. Macha has historically bugged certain players to the point of inspiring mutiny. Terrance Long, a very likable outfielder of the Giambi-led crew, wanted to put Macha in a sleeper-hold he was so pissed at the manager’s lack of social grace and compassion. Plus, Macha was never really a Beane kind of guy to begin with as we witnessed with Beane’s reluctance to sign Macha last winter. After running Art Howe out of town, Beane saw Macha as merely industrial glue-- keeping watch over a young and maturing team still figuring out how to play with the big boys. What Beane wanted from Macha was continuity and a figure who understood the A's system. But with this, he didn’t much want to hear much from the manager. The Oakland A's are a result of Beane’s genetic tinkering, not the strategic yearnings of a Sparky Anderson wannabe. Thus, Macha never really fit into Beane’s grand scheme of things. The smoldering ruins of the ALCS debacle have finally been cleared away, and the franchise finds itself on the precipice of beginning a new era of Oakland A’s baseball. What will the present and future bring?

SFist Kevin, contributing