Ryne Sandberg's tortured tenure as manager of the Phillies during one of their most woeful times - which is really saying something - ended Tuesday in Baltimore when Chase Utley openly berated the pitching coach, and by extension Sandberg, for a clumsy bit of strategy that was failing badly.
What currency Sandberg still held in the clubhouse and within the organization was spent in those moments, not necessarily because Utley was right, but because his crime against the most hallowed tenet of the game, not showing up the manager, went entirely unpunished and ignored. Outside the walls, it might have been just another blip on a downward arc.