About 13 years ago, there was a pitching coach named Greg Booker who was fired from his post in San Diego after a pitiful Padres season. The brass saw a staff with one of the worst ERAs in Major League Baseball and found a scapegoat in the man tasked with its development.
But when asked to react to his ouster, Booker didn’t seem particularly contrite.
“You can prepare a donkey to run in the Preakness,” he said, “but he probably won’t run very well.”
Tuesday morning, the Sounders parted ways with coach Sigi Schmid 20 games into his eighth season with the club.