"Sometimes," Pat Gillick said last summer as the famed baseball executive was being added to the Phillies Wall of Fame. "The little pieces fit in the puzzle more than big pieces."
If you are among the many trying to figure out how Ron Hextall can be fired before the coach he hired has been, think of what played out a decade ago across the street from the Wells Fargo Center.
Ed Wade was a good talent evaluator who wasn't nearly as good as a general manager. Whether it was clinging too dearly to the players he drafted, or making trades and signings based on resumes rather than results, Wade's tenure as the Phillies GM, by 2005, produced the same Groundhog Day effect with local fandom that Hextall's has created in this era.