Very important

especially on the road. EVER.

At home, ok. You have a chance to bring it back.

On the road? NEVER

why would you fire macha? in my opinion, i think he's an excellent manager. you can't expect everyone to be perfect all the time. sure, he was the one with the idea to IBB the batter. BUT. It wasn't his fault that the defense failed on us. It wasn't his fault that Brian Jordan runs so fast. And it's not his fault that Dotel is getting to be more and more like Mulder (agreeing with monkeyball) and not making the pitches he needs at the crucial times. This is what's screwing us over. We don't get the necessary hits at the critical times. We don't get the right pitches in the right innings. I've noticed we usually get the right plays after the crushing run-scoring hits. Is this right? Nope, not at all. Come on Oakland! Get the plays in so we don't have to blame Ken Macha for the crummy defense and offence!

My posts all point towards owners Steve Schott and Ken Hoffman. If they would open the pocket book and allow BB to attrack a QUALITY closer and another powerhitter, we would not be having half the conversations we are having on this fine site. Boy, does letting Miggy and Foulke go loom large now. THANKS MR. SCHOTT AND HOFFMAN FOR TEASING US AGAIN THIS SEASON. Maybe next year ownership will bump the budget up $2 million so we can sign a bigtime hitter like Ben Grieve!!!!

The ownership has completely let us down.  How much different would this lineup and defense look with Kent?  On that note, what about even Polanco?  Schott's promise to increase payroll is a joke - we had to get money from KC of all teams just to pay Dotel's $1.8M contract.  What a joke.

BTW, Murph, you're not John Murphy who was the A's fan in the World Series of Poker, are you?

Though Macha isn't a "big personality" manager; I do like him.

I thought I understood from "Moneyball" that the A's front office does prefer managers they can control anyway -- all the personnell decisions and strategies are laid out by Billy Beane. I'm sure that is an oversimplification, but Macha would seem to fit into the A's organization well in that way.

The teams recent toubles: lack of hitting, crappy pitching. I don't think it is Macha at all.

Both Howe and Macha have similar, laid-back demeanors.  I think this can be contagious to the players.  No one plays with a sense of urgency, and only a small handful of players play with any fire or passion (Huddy, Kotsay, Byrnes, et al.).  It might help to have Macha show some emotion, even get tossed once in a while, just to show the team how much he cares.  It might be too late for him to change his personality now, though.  If Manny's trap and the call on Chavez last night wasn't enough to do it, I'm not sure what will.