Manny Acta was fired as manager of the Cleveland Indians with just six games remaining in the regular season, a rare move but one that illustrates how frustrated management is with the team’s collapse.
On July 21, the Indians were three games out of first place in their division, charging home in a fan base that has become accustomed to failure. But they went on to lost 21 of the next 25 games, which is hard to do know matter how bad you are.
They went a head-scratching 5-24 in August, and eventually tumbled to the bottom of their division. It certainly wasn’t all Acta’s fault, but anything he tried to inspire a reversal failed. And since the entire team cannot be fired. . . Acta took the fall.
The Indians announced Acta will not return in 2013 on an off day before they opened a final home stand against Kansas City and the Chicago White Sox, but did not even allow him to finish out the year.
Bench coach Sandy Alomar, a former Indians All-star catcher and fan favorite who could become Cleveland’s next full-time manager, will replace Acta for the last six games of 2012.
Indians general manager Chris Antonetti said in a statement: “Manny’s passion for the game, positive attitude and tremendous knowledge of baseball helped guide us to a number of high points during his tenure. Managerial changes are never easy or taken lightly, but as we approached the end of the season and turned our attention to assessing the year, we determined a change was necessary.”
Earlier this month, owner Paul Dolan said he was not considering a managerial change, but the Indians continued to stumble and left the club with little choice. Dolan indicated the decision was made by Antonetti, who is in his second season.
The 43-year-old Acta maintained a stoic attitude during the Indians’ freefall and insisted he wasn’t concerned about his future but only about developing young players.
“I have great respect for Manny and appreciate the effort he exhibited not only leading our team, but also the contributions he made in our community over the past three years,” Dolan said in a statement. “I fully support Chris’ decision to make this change and am confident that he will lead a tireless search to find the right individual to lead the club to our ultimate goal of winning the World Series.”
