McLaren dismissed

Well it happened.  To the surprise of absolutely nobody.

Hours after losing their fifth of their past six series by an 8-3 margin to the Florida Marlins, the Seattle Mariners distributed a press release stating that John McLaren, by all accounts the “nicest manager in baseball”, has been relieved of duties.

Former major league manager Jim Riggleman, who served as a bench coach under McLaren, now takes the reins of the floundering franchise.  Devoid of any “interim” label, Riggleman becomes the 13th full-time manager in the franchise’s history.  With a career managerial record of .448, Riggleman would be right at home at the helm of a franchise that has an all-time .438 winning percentage.  (Minus the Piniella years, of course.)  Riggleman guided the Sammy Sosa-led 1998 Cubs to a Wild Card finish in 1998, only to have the team unceremoniously dumped in that year’s National League Division Series.  But other than that, Riggy has guided a number of underperforming stinker teams.

Sigh.  The more things change, the more things stay the same.