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Old school baseball executives like Andy MacPhail adapting to times

When incoming Phillies President Andy MacPhail was asked Thursday what kind of criteria he would use in choosing the next general manager, owner John Middleton interrupted.

"I've told Andy what he needs to do," Middleton said. "He needs to hire himself."

That response made me flash back to 1999, when I was in the TV booth during a rain delay of a Cubs-Giants game and Chip Caray asked what the Cubs needed to do to get out of their rut.

My reply was MacPhail should "fire Ed Lynch and become the GM himself."

That didn't win me any friends in the Cubs' front office, but 11 months later, that's exactly what happened.