Mel Stottlemyre on George Steinbrenner’s praise for the Angels management during their series:

“I laughed when I saw it,” Stottlemyre said. “My first thoughts were, `What about Joe? Joe had done a hell of a job, too.’ To congratulate the other manager and not congratulate your own after what he’d done this year, I laughed.”

What did he do?

Win a division in the last week? Big deal, they played like crap all year long. They didn’t win it, Boston lost it. Any Yankees fan who thinks otherwise is in blatant biased denial.

Lose a playoff series? Amen. Lost it big time.

Hell, if you want to credit him for something, be prepared to criticise him because he certainly earned plenty of that. He couldn’t get that team to play this year. Proves that if the team can’t manage itself, he’s useless. I pat myself on the back a bit because I’ve been saying that all along about him, and this season it was starkly obvious.

Mel? Shut up.

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