Listening to The Boss

Yesterday, after weeks of the situation begging for it, Carlos Delgado made the opposing team pay for their dramatic shift by bunting to third base for a base hit.

Interesting quote by Willie Randolph today saying that he's been trying to get Delgado to bunt for a long time and he was glad that he finally did. It reminded the monkeys of how Bobby Valentine said he was trying to get Roberto Alomar to stop sliding into first base.

The obvious question is why is it so hard to get players to do what you say? Now the monkeys played Little League back in their days in the suburbs and when the coach told us to bunt, we bunted. Most certainly, players in high school or college wouldn't dream of dismissing a coach's request to bunt. And for players in the minors looking to avoid the dreaded "uncoachable" tag, a Manager's word is law. Now after years of obeying, does making it to the major leagues change all that?

Do the players think that since they are paid in the millions of dollars that they must justify their contract by swinging instead of bunting? Do they feel bunting is beneath them after they have made it this far? Either way, do they feel it is okay to ignore the Manager's request because they now make money than their boss?

This column will not be about how fit Willie Randolph is for the job, but this does beg the question, "Will players only listen to a certain kind of Manager?" Would it take Lou Pinella or Jim Leyland as long to plead Delgado to lay down a bunt? Certainly, it is interesting that it took this long for Delgado to listen to his boss.