The Philadelphia Phillies announced the firing of manager Joe Girardi on Friday and Joe DeCamara and Jon Ritchie reacted live on the 94WIP Midday Show around 10:20am.
(breaking news around the 16:30 mark)
"It's a failure of a season," Joe DeCamara said. "He was a failure as a bullpen manager. I think he was a failure with regard in being easy on players, I'm talking about can't pitch this guy so many days in a row and all that nonsense. It's a shame it didn't work out, because I think the guy is probably a pretty good dude and I expected a lot more, but it is a results oriented business and the results were not good enough. I think it is a warranted firing."
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"I wanted this. I felt like something had to change...We needed something, some sort of shake up," Ritchie said. "Hopefully, they have that want to that we haven't seen. The desire, the toughness, that has not been exhibited. It's asking a lot. This team is not a perfect team, we know that they are constructed in a myriad of broken ways, I don't think this solves everything but I do think it's a start."
"Look, it's the right call," DeCamara said. "He did a poor job, actually a horrendous job as manager, but they've done a horrendous job as players. Most of them, not all of them, most of them."