Astros Chacon suspended for "insubordination"

[sakata_catching]

I'd link you to the article from 2005 but the link appears to have expired.

The link has expired, but here are some of the juicier passages from it.

Behind the scenes with Ed Wade

by Randy Miller

October 16, 2005

Ed Wade screamed and cursed for several minutes, then picked up a chair in Charlie Manuel's office and whipped it across the room.

BAM!

The chair smashed into a wall halfway between the ceiling and the floor. Two legs and chunks of wood littered the area.

Manuel watched the scene and kind of nodded his head as if to say, "OK, now what?"

This fit being thrown by a grown man was aimed toward to the scribe sitting across from Manuel's desk. I quietly watched in stunned amazement when the Phillies' since-ousted general manager showed off a hot temper that some team insiders suggest is legendary.

His reason for such behavior following a 6-3 Phillies victory over Atlanta on July 2?

Wade blamed it on hearing that I had told assistant GM Mike Arbuckle that pitching prospect Cole Hamels would be coming up from Class-A Clearwater to replace injured starter Randy Wolf in the rotation.

Not true, I told Wade.

That morning, Manuel did mention Hamels was an option. I phoned Arbuckle about something else, mentioned Manuel's comments and Arbuckle later called Wade to say: "If Charlie is thinking about Hamels coming up, we need to remind him that he's still in A-ball."

In a recurring theme from an eight-year tenure that had a forced ending last Monday, Wade somehow got the facts all wrong.

Manuel acknowledged talking about Hamels, Arbuckle was called, but Wade couldn't admit a mistake ... because what he really was mad about was a story that ran in the Courier Times two months earlier, one that mentioned Wade's job security not being so good and highly respected former Houston GM Gerry Hunsicker being on the Phillies' radar.

I never said another word to Wade since that unprofessional blowup, which was no one-time tantrum.

Late this summer, Wade repeatedly chewed out closer Billy Wagner - sometimes in person, sometimes over the phone - for comments he read in the newspaper and during contract negotiations. Wagner took this verbal abuse for a while, then got fed up and began hanging up on Wade.

Years earlier, Wade called a team meeting to scream at players. One pitcher said everyone buried their heads in their arms so Wade couldn't see them laughing at him.

Two springs ago, Wade was furious at Phillies beat writers, called a morning meeting and cursed for about 20 minutes. I still have the tape from that one. You should hear it. It's something else, right out of the Lee Elia school of bleeps. He got personal. Ask Philadelphia Daily News baseball writer Marcus Hayes, who remained calm as his character was assassinated and he was being called an officious [bleep]."

On a Sunday in July 2004, the day Eric Milton flirted with a no-hitter, Wade lost it in front of the Phillies dugout when Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Sam Carchidi asked him if "there were any trade developments." Carchidi, who does not cover the team regularly, was told with anger: "If you were here everyday, you would know." Wade ended the shouting match by saying, "Kiss my [bleeping bleep], Sam."

Dozens of early arriving children watched the entire incident from behind the Phillies dugout.

When announcing the firing, team president David Montgomery called Wade a man of character. Talk to others in the organization with the tape reporters off and notebooks away and you'll hear more stories of Wade's hot temper and how he often big-leagued team employees.

Wade couldn't even go out in style. While speaking to the media following his dismissal, he constantly vented. Without naming names, he blasted Daily News columnist Bill Conlin and other media members who didn't deserve his respect.

It seems to me that if it hadn't been Chacon, this honor would've inevitably fallen to someone else. Chacon is lucky charges aren't being pressed; Wade is lucky he wasn't attacked by a player of more estimable value to the ballclub that Wade himself is supposed to lead.

[Migrant Redbird]

Let's also add that if Chacon's account is even somewhat true...GMs are gettin' freaky out there!

Not really. You will run across the occasional manager like that in almost any workplace. Some prior US presidents were notorious for subjecting their subordinates to profane verbal abuse. There are regulations against it in the military, but I'd hazard a guess that it still goes on quite a bit, as long as it doesn't cross the line into sexual harrassment.

I didn't play organized football, but my understanding was always that football coaches at all levels have been frequent abusers; I suspect the same is true of basketball coaches (besides Bobby Knight) and baseball managers too.

My guess is that general managers tend to be more civil than managers and coaches, but probably not that much.

[Migrant Redbird]

If it's appropriate for Milton Bradley to take anger management classes, why not Ed Wade?

Of course, firing him would be a lot easier.

About 40 years ago, when I was a buck sergeant in the Army and a team chief for a communications van, my battalion commander unloaded on me. I was standing at the door of my communications van, on the tailgate of a deuce-and-a-half truck, while this lieutenant colonel stood on the ground next to my feet and reamed me a new one.

Later, one of my team members who witnessed the verbal abuse said he didn't know how I stood it and said that he would have kicked the good colonel right in the teeth. That was something which hadn't even occurred to me.

The battalion sergeant major, a black career soldier, also witnessed the tirade. After the commander left, the sergeant major took me in his jeep to the communications van at the distant end (it was only about a quarter of a mile away, one of the reasons the commander was so irate), so that I could explore some of my ideas on why the system wasn't working correctly. The sergeant in charge of that van (also black) took umbrage at my going into his van and "messing" with his equipment. The sergeant major very tersely informed the other team chief that I was attempting to locate the problem and that, if he didn't like it, he could pick up his duffel bag and walk back to garrison (about 60 miles away). I made the tests, isolated the problem (it was a module back in my own van), and we fixed it.

I always did appreciate the professionalism of that black sergeant major. I had very little respect for the professionalism of his white commander, by the way. Since we shared the same last name, the battalion commander also had no problems remembering me.

[TGO]

Ed Wade should be thanking his lucky stars he got another GM job instead of verbally abusing people. He didn't deserve that chance. His reputation is awful among fans, reporters, players, and team officials alike. Not just for anger management but for his terrible personnel moves. Then again, I have been thinking all along that McLane gave him the job because he wanted someone under his thumb.

That being said, Chacon obviously crossed a very big line.

[byrdz]

Throwing the GM to the ground, isn't that grounds for termination??? If not, I should try this with my boss sometime.

[Palmer Esque]

That's just according to the player who was explaining how calm he was... about 2 seconds before he grabbed the other guy by the throat.

I'm not treating his report as gospel...

NO I am not either, just reporting what was in that article. But as people said on here, Wade does have priors. He just adds to the joke of a franchise that they Astros have become IMO.

[Balmer Bomber]

Chacon has now been placed on waivers until Monday. If he clears Monday, he will be given his outright relsease and his contract will be terminated.

I don't know what the MLBPA is going to do about this. It seems as though they will try to recoup the remaining $950k left of his $2m deal, but I doubt they will see any of it.

[Mary1966]

Chacon has now been placed on waivers until Monday. If he clears Monday, he will be given his outright relsease and his contract will be terminated.

I don't know what the MLBPA is going to do about this. It seems as though they will try to recoup the remaining $950k left of his $2m deal, but I doubt they will see any of it.

They haven't been able to get Sidney Ponson the $11.3 million left on his contract when the Orioles terminated it in 2005, and that's been almost 3 years ago. I think the player's union will do the same here, file a grievance for appearances and then let it go.