Acta's Limit

~~~

When his guys make mistakes, he's philosophical. During even the most lopsided, humiliating routes, he defends his players. There is nobody in baseball with a cooler facade than Washington Nationals Manager, Manny Acta.

Some have misinterpreted that calm affectation as a sign that he is laid back, that his management style is to go along as a Friend of the Player. It would seem that even some of his players have made that mistake, or at least they might have up until last night.

Maybe Elijah Dukes didn't know about Acta benching a player last season when he failed to run out an infield popup. Maybe he forgot that Lastings Milledge got benched in a game earlier this season because he showed up late for work. Maybe he simply failed to even give his manager a moment's thought.

Manny, along with Jim Bowden, have put a lot at risk in bringing in a guy with a long record (both in baseball and court) of being a problem. Even so, Acta stands up for him in press conferences in spite of what has been an abysmal hitting record thus far. Last night at PNC Stadium in Pittsburgh, Dukes got two hits in five plate appearances. He scored once, on Lastings Milledge's 9th inning homer - a moment that should have been allowed to pass quietly at the other team's park and celebrated in the morning papers in DC. Instead, the Nats looked every bit like the girls softball team that Nelson Figueroa said they were.

In stark contrast, Ronnie Belliard went 3 for 4 at the plate. Two out of three of those hits were over the wall. For so many good reasons, he trotted around the bases and into the bullpen with very little fuss. That's how Kearns would have done it, or Zimmerman, or Johnson.

If one really wants to see the threshold of Manny's patience, try representing your team at home plate with your own lower level of professionalism and sportsmanship instead of stepping up and representing Acta's. Dukes has a temper that will prevent him from achieving a level of greatness equal to his abilities. It's the kind of temper that argues balls and strikes with an umpire. It's the mindset that rationalizes that he can get away with grandstanding in the middle of someone else's park. And it's the lack of maturity that makes him believe that publicly disrespecting the team manager will go unnoticed and without consequences. Elijah Dukes just jaywalked into a whole mess of trouble. Manny Acta is about to clarify a few misconceptions.

~~~