Online, fans haved changed tune on Charlie Manuel

2005:

How did Phillies fans feel about Charlie Manuel in 2005? Let's go straight to the comments section of the700level.com.

First post after a posting about Manuel in May 2005, his first season: "This guy isn't a good coach. He can't even get his fat [butt] out of the dugout to argue calls. he leaves some pitchers in to long [Liber lately] and he seems to take the good pitchers out to early [Myers]. and i don't think i have seen this many philles get picked off first."

Forget the grammar and spelling - it's a message board - that guy captured the mood of the city. Everybody still wanted Jim Leyland in the dugout, not Charlie of Mayberry. The conventional wisdom was that the Phillies didn't want an independent mind questioning their moves, or lack of them, which is why they chose Manuel.

More from the same comments section: "Might be nice to have a manager who knows how and when to execute a double-switch properly . . . Manuel stinks . . . this is a totally biased opinion. As most Philly fans, I feel that I know how to run this team better than the Manuel."

Defenders of Manuel? There weren't any, not on that board in May 2005. There were, however, reminders of how different a time it was, when Chase Utley wasn't yet a full-time starter and the Phillies bullpen was a nightly disappointment.

2008: How many could have envisioned the day when future Hall of Famer Joe Torre got out-managed by our guy in the crucial game of the National League Championship Series, when Torre ran out of lefthanders while Manuel had a lefthanded bat left on his bench, a guy by the name of Stairs.

This week, when Manuel named his World Series rotation, there was this comment, which didn't seem sarcastic: "I was hoping the rotation would be Hamels/Blanton/Myers/Moyer, but I'm assuming cholly knows what hes doing, here."

This guy won't go to Manuel for his grammar lessons. And the town could still turn on the manager if a double-switch doesn't work out right. But those thoughts capture the mood of the town right now: He's our Cholly now.