Can Russell possibly survive?

By Joe Starkey, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/
Sunday, August 22, 2010

John Russell is the worst manager in baseball history.

OK, that's a bit harsh. Russell isn't the worst manager of all-time. He's the eighth-worst. You can look it up. His sickly .380 winning percentage is topped — bottomed, rather — by only seven men who have managed at least 320 games.

Those men worked a long time ago, too. Only one is living. They managed teams such as the Boston Beaneaters, the Louisville Colonels, the St. Louis Browns, the expansion Washington Senators and the expansion Toronto Blue Jays.

Do you think the Beaneaters had bobblehead nights?

Russell recently pushed past Alan Trammell into the bottom 10 and continues to sink fast. He lugged a horrific 169-276 record into Saturday night's game against the New York Mets.

Yes, 107 games below .500.

That kind of prodigious losing over a number of years — no matter the circumstances — is not tolerated in professional sports and almost always costs a manager/head coach his job.

Fair or not, that's a fact, and it leads to a question: Can Russell possibly survive to manage a fourth season?

These being the Pirates, anything is possible. For all we know, they've signed Russell to a 10-year extension and given him an ownership stake in the club — and will release the news sometime in 2014.

Remember, this is the same franchise that was so proud of extending Russell's contract (by a single year) last October that it didn't tell anyone for eight months and did so only under media pressure. Team president Frank Coonelly confirmed the extension the night after a six-error loss in the midst of a 10-game losing streak.

There was no champagne.

Coonelly continues to express lukewarm support for Russell, as he did Friday, but is quick to remind the public that every job is open for review and that the Pirates are willing to eat salaries if need be.

I'm still trying to figure out how a manager who apparently did not have the power to fill out his lineup card the way he wanted early in the season later gained enough authority to fire his pitching coach and bench coach.

So the story went, anyhow — that it was Russell's call to fire Joe Kerrigan and Gary Varsho.

These being the Pirates, who knows?

We do know this:

• Each of Russell's three teams have finished last in the NL Central (yeah, I'm including this one).

• This club, 40-82 going into last night's game, could still lose 110 games. Merely losing 105 would out-do all but two teams in franchise history.

Four months ago, this column called for an extension of Russell's contract, reasoning that no one could do better given the dearth of talent and that confident franchises stick by their hires through thick and thin.

That was before the revelation that Russell had been secretly extended, before the losing became downright historical and before his blunders multiplied.

Just two nights ago, Russell allowed long reliever Sean Gallagher to bat in the fourth inning with two outs and the Pirates trailing, 7-2, with runners on second and third. He should have sent Gallagher to the plate with a white flag instead of a bat.

We could argue whether Russell is a good teacher or an adept handler of pitching staffs. It doesn't matter anymore. Professional sports is a bottom-line business, and even if you believe those above Russell have given him no chance, he has to be accountable to his record.

Before the season, I asked Russell to fill in the blank, based on the Pirates' promotional ad, "It's time."

Time for what?

"Time to win," he said.

Six months later, it's time for a new manager.