And yeah, I wish he’d gone just about anywhere else–just for his own peace of mind.

Also has me pining for the days when Fowler was leading off for us. In hindsight, is there a worse possible fit than the Cardinals for Fowler, at least from a personality standpoint?

Though when you said that Matheny was “Tony La Russa’s Oates”, I have to confess I wasn’t sure if you meant John Oates of “Hall and Oates”, or baseball’s Johnny Oates – but a spot of research tells me that Oates followed Frank Robinson in Baltimore, not Earl Weaver.

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(Just for fun, two paragraphs from Oates’ sabr bio):

Like many ballplayers, Oates didn’t hang ’em up without a few regrets. “The one thing that disappoints me most about my career is that I didn’t enjoy it,” he said. “I was always worried about being released, being traded. I was a fringe player and all I thought about was surviving from one day to the next.”

The strain that Oates had felt as a fringe player in the major leagues just increased exponentially as a manager. As his Orioles lost their first four games, Oates lost nine pounds and his diet was reduced to a bowl of soup and half a sandwich per day. He lost weight so quickly, reported the Washington Post, that Hemond was prompted to deliver a huge ice-cream sundae to Oates’s office after his first victory.

“Baseball: My Lifelong Struggle”.

On second thought I’m thinking you meant Johnny Oates after all.