Sweet Jesus, NO!

Buried at the bottom of a Washington Post story are two paragraphs that should send a chill through any Washington Baseball fan:

"An industry source said yesterday that Pat Gillick, who served as a GM with Toronto, Baltimore and Seattle, almost certainly won't be the Expos' GM. Gillick has said in the last two weeks that he would like the job despite its tenuous nature.

Several former general managers could be considered, including Dan Duquette, who ran the Expos and later the Red Sox; Jim Bowden, who served as GM of the Cincinnati Reds for more than 10 seasons; and former Los Angeles Dodgers GM Kevin Malone. "

Gillick would be accepable, I suppose. Duquette has zero people skills and was good at putting together a roster on the cheap from scraps--before he got fat and happy with a larger payroll. But Jim Bowden and Kevin Malone???? Please tell me this is just Tony Tavares' way of giving Washington fans a good scare before Halloween!

Bowden and his never-ending roster tinkering just resulted in a lot of water treading. The one year they actually put everything together, a short-sighted interleague schedule trade (They gave up a series with the lowly Royals for a set against the then-powerhouse Indians) forced them into a one-game playoff against the Mets, which they lost. Following that high water mark, the Reds never got back into the race. They just couldn't find the pitching as Bowden brought in retread after retread, hoping that Don Gullett could work his magic with the likes of Steve Parris, Osvaldo Fernandezand Jim Brower. Gullett's good, but he's not a saint and predictable results followed.

The other candidate that makes my stomach turn is Kevin "The Sherrif" Malone. He was fired as GM of the Dodgers after an a screaming match with a fan in the stands. These two paragraphs probably sum up his qualifications the best:

Three years, hundreds of stupid comments and dozens of horrid decisions later, Kevin Malone limped meekly out of town last week, leaving a prepared statement on his Dodger Stadium voicemail: "Hi, you have reached the Los Angeles Dodgers and the voice mailbox of Kevin Malone. As of today, Thursday, April 19, I will be resigning as general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers."

Malone, who leaves with a dreadful track record of personnel decisions, traded Gold Glove catcher Charles Johnson for sore-armed catcher Todd Hundley, made Carlos Perez the richest Triple-A pitcher in baseball with a three-year, $15.6 million contract and skipped over Steve Finley to sign center fielder Devon White to a three-year, $12.4 million free-agent contract.

Hell, let's make it three paragraphs, cause this is so much fun!

Malone leaves with little sympathy and openly tampered with Giants manager Dusty Baker as he tried to get him to Los Angeles. He caused an NCAA investigation when he called a UCLA recruit, ripped former manager Davey Johnson behind his back, recruited Kevin Kennedy while Johnson still was manager and pleaded with certain broadcasters to praise him on the air in return for favors.

Ugh. That's about all I can say now.