I was on the radio last night when the subject of former Phillies GM Ed Wade came up. Immediately the callers started trashing him and talking about what an idiot he was and how he destroyed the Phillies during his time at the helm.
We here in the Philadelphia area do a good job of identifying failures and weaknesses of our sports players and teams and that’s fine, but too many times we don’t give guys credit for the good they do.
Wade is a guy who is a great example of being trashed for making bone-headed decisions but not given credit for the great decisions he made.
The guy who used to wear the Coke bottled glasses and looked like a dork, ran a team which made some major improvements during his time here but couldn’t find a way to make the playoffs.
During his first three years with the club they were 217-269,with a .447 winning percentage. In his final five years they were 426-383, with a .527 winning percentage.
It was a very good improvement but nothing to write home about because they couldn’t make the playoffs.
Each of those final five seasons, he would make a move late in the season to get pitching help, but was accused of not doing enough because he wouldn’t trade some of the top prospects he had in the farm system.
Here’s some of the prospects he wouldn’t part with: Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Cole Hamels, Brett Myers and Pat Burrell. This is the nucleus of the team which won a World Series for only the second time in the team’s more than 100 year history and went to the Series again last year.
Think about what Phillies fans would be saying if these stars were playing for other teams and leading them to World Series championships.
He also hired Charlie Manuel as the manager and was shredded on the radio and in the papers because Charlie was called a dumb country bumpkin.
It’s fine to criticize people as long as you give them credit when they prove you wrong.
I think the Phils should invite Ed Wade back and have an Ed Wade Day at Citizen’s Bank Park because Ed Wade has a lot to do with the great team the Phillies have today.
