The Zo Zone

I hate writing about the media. In my opinion, we should never be the story.

But I would like to weigh in on the Howard Eskin/Charlie Manuel brouhaha. I've seen plenty of blow ups since I started covering the Phillies in April 2003. The late John Vukovich verbally crushed me for about five minutes -- it felt like five hours -- in June 2003 because he did not like something I wrote. (Vuke was an awesome man, and we later laughed about it.) I have seen everybody from Ed Wade to Larry Bowa to pie-throwing Tomas Perez blow up at reporters (Perez did not throw a pie, but he did need to be restrained).

The point is: this stuff happens more than you think.

In fact, Alec Baldwin's tirade is tame compared to what the beat writers have heard in the past.

Most of the time it's directed at Phillies beat writers because we are there every day asking the tough questions. The beat writers are in Clearwater from the beginning to the end of spring training. We are in the clubhouse 3 1/2 hours before every game. We often are the last ones to leave the clubhouse after a game. We cover the off-season. We attend the winter meetings. It's a 365-day-a-year job. Believe me: we ask every question that needs to be asked. Especially the tough ones. We tick off general managers, managers, coaches and players on a regular basis. It's just that nobody sees it -- or cares because we're not celebrities. (We also try to save those tough questions for when the TV cameras aren't around.) We actually asked Manuel earlier this season if he thought he needed to blow up and get on his players. He gave the same response he gave to Eskin: "It's a timing thing. They're hustling. They're playing hard. So I don't think that would accomplish anything." In fact, I think we've asked Manuel that question every time this team gets in a losing streak. And there have been quite a few losing streaks since he took over in 2005.

We asked Bowa that same tough question in Montreal on Aug. 28, 2003. Bowa said he absolutely wouldn't blow up because the players were putting forth a good effort. But after they lost that day, 4-0, to drop nine of their last 10, Bowa exploded. Not literally, of course. But he cursed out his players like few players had seen before. They won 9 of their next 10. Maybe we got in Bowa's head. But Manuel blows up, too. He blew up in the visitor's dugout at Dolphin Stadium on May 1 last season. The Phillies won 12 of their next 13.