Ed Wade - A Real Piece of Work

Wow! I was surprised to read how much of a jackass former Phillies GM was:

Late this summer, Wade repeatedly chewed out closer Billy Wagner - sometimes in person, sometimes over the phone - for comments he read in the newspaper and during contract negotiations. Wagner took this verbal abuse for a while, then got fed up and began hanging up on Wade.

Years earlier, Wade called a team meeting to scream at players. One pitcher said everyone buried their heads in their arms so Wade couldn't see them laughing at him.

Two springs ago, Wade was furious at Phillies beat writers, called a morning meeting and cursed for about 20 minutes. I still have the tape from that one. You should hear it. It's something else, right out of the Lee Elia school of bleeps. He got personal. Ask Philadelphia Daily News baseball writer Marcus Hayes, who remained calm as his character was assassinated and he was being called an officious [bleep]."

I get the feeling Ed Wade might be waiting a long time for another MLB GM job.

After reading that article - I was first surprised at how much of a jerk Wade seems to be. I was then left scratching my head at the question - "if Ed Wade was such a jerk - how come it was never reported?" If all the players knew he was a jerk and tuned him out and all the reporters knew - how come the fans never learned of this? What's the sense of having beat writers if they don't give you the information about the team that can only be learned in the locker-room? Most of the stuff most beat writers pass off as reporting could just as easily be gotten from STATS. Where were the Phillie beat writers when Wade was chewing out Wagner and Wagner was hanging up on him? Who is the greater failure here - Ed Wade or the reporters who either don't do their job or can only do their jobs after the fact?

HT SportsProf for the link.

EDIT: Tom at Balls, Sticks and Stuff had a similar take on Ed Wade and Miller's article