Amaro should take a seat … with fans

Ruben Amaro Jr. has committed the ultimate sin that a professional sports figure can commit: taking a shot at the fan base. That is exactly what the embattled general manager did when speaking to CSNPhilly.com about bringing up Double-A pitching prospects whom Phillies fans want to see. "They don't understand the game. They don't understand the process." Amaro told the website.

It is a battle Amaro will never win. Baseball clubhouses have signs up that say, "Don't bet on baseball." There should be a memo in bold print to athletes, coaches, managers, executives and even owners that reads, "Ripping fans is a losing war you should never wage."

In sports, they say, "Listen to the fans, and you wind up sitting with the fans." That's exactly what the Phillies GM should be doing – sitting with the fans.

I wouldn't allow Amaro to give me advice on players I should be pursuing on the waiver wire in my fantasy baseball league, much less continue on in his current role. How does a guy who destroyed a team get the opportunity to salvage the organization and rebuild it? It's sheer lunacy. It's the equivalent of the New York Knicks giving Isiah Thomas a chance to bring that franchise back to respectability. Organizational ineptitude at its finest.

Amaro now has been relegated to saying he's sorry for his comments: "The first thing I wanted to say about the comments I made is, one, I'd like to apologize to the fans. I'm a fan myself. The comments weren't meant to disparage our fans by any stretch of the imagination. I probably used my words incorrectly or poorly."

Incorrectly? Poorly? Yeah, I'd say so. You've single-handedly destroyed a baseball franchise that had a five-year stretch of baseball dominance and you have the temerity to criticize fans? That said, I'm not buying his alleged remorse. He reads the papers. He listens to talk radio. He knows he is public enemy No. 1 in Philadelphia.

Amaro is smug and arrogant. He carries himself as if he has had a legendary run or game-changing impact similar to Bill Walsh and the West Coast offense, Phil Jackson and the triangle offense. and Billy Beane and "money ball." The reality is that Amaro is the mere benefactor of other baseball executives' accomplishments dating to what they saw, pursued and acquired in the early to mid 2000s. He inherited a finished product in 2009 and, since then, has been the overseer of progressive decline. The maestro of demise. The architect of organizational decay.

This delusional arrogance is nothing new to Philly, however. Let's go back to October 2013, when Flyers owner Ed Snider defended the Flyers' "culture" – saying, "We don't need a fresh perspective" when asked if the organization needed a culture change during the Peter Laviolette/Craig Berube shuffle. That was another slap in the face to a city that deserves much more and fans who know what they're talking about.

Then there was Andy Reid, and the numerous instances when he would scoff at a question from an Eagles reporter, asking the tough question as to why Reid did what he did or didn't do what he should have done. Spitting in the face of the fans once again. You know, the ones who, along with TV revenues, pay your salary. When you pooh-pooh a legit question and brush it aside, you are not disrespecting the journalist -- you are disrespecting the fans who can't ask you those questions. The media is an extension of the fan base.

The Phillies are 41 games under .500 since the end of 2011. They had winning seasons every year from 2003 through 2011. But thanks to a guy who believes fans are stupid, we might be without winning baseball until 2020. I guess with hindsight being 20/20, the decision to give Ruben Amaro Jr. the position of general manager was a tactical error. Phillies baseball and taking shots at your followers: both a losing effort. Thanks, RAJ.