“Phillies GM Matt Kentak is incompetent,” wrote WIP morning host Angelo Cataldi in an article for the Philly Voice earlier this week.
The team improved by 14 games over last season and exceeded their Vegas expectations, but the Phillies still finished with a losing season after being 15 games over .500 on August 7th, struggling to draw fans to the ballpark. Cataldi put blame on the GM, the manager and their analytic philosophy as to why the team collapsed and failed to get support from the local fan base.
On Wednesday morning, Phillies manager Gabe Kapler called into Cataldi’s WIP morning show to support the team’s GM and discuss the article written by the iconic radio host.
“I take issue with what you said. I am a compassionate and competitive man, but generating anger for the sake of anger means that you just end up flat out wrong like you were in that piece. That isn’t what the Phillies need,” Kapler told Angelo.
“You’ve been angry about the team year in and year out, yes, a team that got worse every year since 2011,” continued Kapler. “You were angry about it. Now it’s getting better but you’re still doing the same thing Angelo. You talk about the definition of insanity? I’d take a minute to look in the mirror about that.”
Still, Cataldi defended his take, citing his connection and understanding of the Philly fan base over the course of his 29 years as a morning radio host.
“The only people that don’t get their fans are you guys. I’ve been doing this a hell of a lot longer than you guys have and I’m telling you have not listened to your fans yet,” said Cataldi.
“They didn’t come out because they can’t stand analytics, they think it’s boring. They don’t find a 3-2 count exciting the way you do Gabe! This is one of the detachments your organization has right now with the city and I think I’m servicing…I’m helping you guys, trying to explain to you how your customers feel, but no one wants to hear it.”
Kapler later stated the team does listen to its fan base and admitted he might need to change by not being so upbeat about everything surrounding the Phillies, because he doesn’t want to lose credibility.
While both Angelo and Kapler remained respectful to each other, it was a radio conversation between host and coach that offered more raw emotion than the listener usually gets from a weekly interview. The full segment can be heard on demand at WIP’s website.
Brandon Contes is a freelance writer for BSM. He can be found on Twitter @BrandonContes. To reach him by email click here.