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The Pittsburgh Pirates dismissed Jim Tracy after two years on the job.
Pirates GM Neal Huntington talked about it in ways that would make even Tracy seem comfortable:
"This is a very difficult day as a professional," Huntington said. "This is a very difficult day for me as a person. These decisions are never easy. Since my appointment as general manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates we've undergone an exhaustive review of what is here, who we are, what we do, who is in place, what's good and unfortunately in some situations what's not so good.
"After that gathering of information -- we took a very systematic approach to analyzing that information -- after analyzing that information and accessing that information it became very clear to me that we needed some change. If we are going to successfully implement our philosophies, our vision and our system we needed to change the leadership. We needed to change the direction of our baseball operations department."
Or in other words, the Pirates wanted a better manager.
And Jim Duquette, architect of the Orioles juggernaut, has resigned as team VP.
28 other GMs surely appreciate the Pirates' hard work in assembling a conclusive dossier of Jim Tracy's incompetence.
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