Tuesday was a good day. Nothing particularly wonderful happened. It was just a solid, solid day. It was especially solid because it literally ended on a great note. I say literally because the great thing happened about five minutes before I went to sleep. At around 11 p.m., I got an alert on my phone with some pretty exciting news. Here’s what it said:

Sources say the Cincinnati Reds will name pitching coach Bryan Price their new manager tomorrow (or something along those lines)

I almost couldn’t believe it. Wait…the Reds actually picked the right guy to be their manager? Better yet, they actually picked the guy I wanted all along?! I thought for sure I was dreaming. Thankfully, I was not dreaming. It was reality. Bryan Price is now the manager of the Reds. They even did a nice press conference for him, and real humans attended it and asked him questions.

I loved everything he had to say. Well…he did wear a terrible BLUE tie…but you can’t have everything.

Bryan Price is replacing Dusty Baker, a guy who I wrote about briefly in my last post. Dusty was fired soon after the Reds lost to the Pirates in the Wild Card Game, but I chose not to write about it. Why? I simply didn’t have much of an opinion on the move. I wanted to wait and see whom they would choose to replace him before I developed an opinion worth writing about. I never particularly loved Dusty, but I also never hated him. Did I think moving on from Dusty Baker was the right move on its face? Yes. But what’s the point in firing a manager if you’re just going to replace him with someone worse? That’s why I decided to hold my breath, because in my experience as a Reds fan, I’ve had to deal with some pretty terrible managers. I mean, Jerry Narron? Dave Miley? Forgive me for not having much faith in the Reds to hire the right man for the job.

They proved me wrong. They hired Bryan Price, their pitching coach and a guy who has been a pitching coach in the major leagues for a very long time. He’s one of the most respected guys in the game. Reds starter Bronson Arroyo has a quote on Price that I think says it all. Shortly after Baker was fired, Reds beat reporter C. Trent Rosecrans asked Arroyo what he would think about Price as manager. Here’s what he had to say:

“I think he’d be unbelievable,” Arroyo said. “He’s as organized as anyone in the game, he holds people as accountable as well as anyone I’ve seen. He doesn’t buy into stereotypical things in the game, things that other people buy into that I don’t feel are relevant. Price looks at evidence. He’s a freaking smart guy, he makes his decision on reasonable evidence. Sometimes in baseball we go by hunches, what someone else said or they way things have gone in the past. He doesn’t do that.”

Now THAT sounds like a guy I want leading my team. And now, thankfully, he will be leading the Reds. I can’t quite put my finger on the reasons why I think Price will be great. I just get a good vibe from him. He just looks, acts, and talks like a good manager. I think he’s going to be awesome.

Now THAT is some expert baseball analysis, folks. Aren’t you glad you’re reading this blog post? Just give me the Pulitzer already.

Unfortunately, not everyone loves the choice. There are two things that have given fans pause about Price as the new manager. First, he has zero managerial experience. He’s been a pitching coach for a long time, but he’s never been a manager at any level. I must admit that this is a reasonable gripe, but hey, you’ve got to start somewhere. The second issue with Price, however, I simply can’t defend. In the history of Major League Baseball, former pitching coaches generally have pretty bad track records when they get promoted to the manager position. So, a lot of fans think that because Price has a background as a pitching coach, he won’t do well as a manager.

This craziness reminds me of one of my favorite episodes of The West Wing. The episode is called “Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc.” Now, I assume that all of my faithful readers are fluent in Latin, so I don’t think I really need to explain what that means. But, you know what, I’ll humor you just like President Jed Bartlet humored his senior staff with an explanation of the phrase. It means “after, therefore because of.” In other words, it means that because Y occurred after X, X must have caused Y. Now be honest, do you hate me more because I just used the variables X and Y in a sentence? I don’t blame you.

ANYWAY, “post hoc, ergo propter hoc” is a logical fallacy, and it applies perfectly to this particular gripe about Bryan Price. Price was a pitching coach, so he simply can’t be a good manager, they say. Just look at how former pitching coaches like Leo Mazzone and Larry Rothschild fared as managers, they say.

You know why Mazzone and Rothschild were bad managers? It wasn’t because they were former pitching coaches. IT WAS BECAUSE THEY SUCKED! It doesn’t matter what your background is in baseball. Some people have the tools to be great managers, and some don’t.

I just have a feeling that Price has those tools. I just think that Bob Barker and I agree that the Price is right.

Okay sorry, I’ve gotta go print Reds t-shirts that say that on the front. Goodbye!