Narron fired (surprise)

Not surprisingly, the Reds fired manager Jerry Narron yesterday. The Reds had the worst record in baseball for the first half of this season, and the manager is usually the first person to go under such circumstances.

However, in this case, most people agree that team's record is more the fault of the awful bullpen (by far the worst bullpen in baseball), and that Narron could only play the players he was dealt, no matter their ability. Most - including me - would say that the blame rests more with GM Wayne Krivsky's inability to find a decent lineup of relief pitchers from which Narron could choose.

Nevertheless, advance scout Pete Mackanin is now the Reds acting skipper. My greatest reservation about this whole deal is that this essentially tells the team -- and fans -- that the rest of this season has already been given up. I hope Krivsky and owner Bob Castellini have a little something more up thier sleeve for the rest of this season than just letting Narron go, because if that's the case you can expect attendence to plummet for the rest of the year, to depths not seen since the pre-Pete early 1980's, when the only reason to go to a game was Mario Soto.