I think the rope snapped

Yep, I think it happened. I think I finally reached the end of my Lloyd McClendon rope. Just when he seemed like he actually learning, he's been sprinting backwards so fast the last couple weeks, I think I would go and dance across campus if he got canned. Remember to start here, with my long standing list of complaints and praises for Lloyd. Those haven't changed, but the last two weeks or so have been awful. The laundry list:

• While we were in the process of blowing our 5-2 lead to the Yankees, he didn't come out of the dugout to argue the call with Sheffield at first base. Simply unacceptable. If you are a manager known for your fire, you have to stand up for your players in that situation. Instead, the players were flat after the play and the game took on a heavy pall that ended with Giambi's homer
  
• After said game, Lloyd stated that we simply (link is here, in my massive liveblogging of the Ollie/Randy Johnson fiasco, look for the top of the second) "were not good enough to beat the Yankees twice." I don't care if it's true (and it isn't), Lloyd is around to inspire confidence in our young players (because he's not around for his game management skills, that's for sure) and comments like that are beyond unacceptable. If I'm Littlefield, Lloyd is canned on the spot.
• But instead, we decided to focus back on the past. Lloyd was still whining about the call at first after losing again to the Yankees, then to the Red Sox (where another bad, game changing call was made that he didn't come out of the dugout to defend). OK, it was a bad call, we got it, but Lloyd refused to move on.
• Saturday against the Sox saw maybe the worst umpiring call in recent history. David Ortiz took 7/8ths of a full swing at a 3-2 Dave Williams offering, but when it was appealed it was ruled he checked his swing. There was simply no way it happened. Lloyd came out of the dugout, spoke briefly to Williams, then trotted back to the dugout, LAUGHING with home plate ump Jerry Crawford. After the game he explained he had turned over a new leaf and that arguing calls never changes them, so why bother to go out and get tossed (read: I'm a pushover now).
• Lloyd instead decides that he's not a pushover, and on Tuesday comes out screaming and yelling and kicking about a play where THE UMPIRES GOT THE CALL RIGHT by calling Bobby Hill out at the plate.
  
• This of course brings us to Sunday's game. The game opened with a little tiff between Yady Molina and the D-Train. Lloyd overreacted (as recounted in Cardnilly's weekend recap, he may be a Cardinals fan, but I agree with him on this one):

  And I’m officially tired of Lloyd McClendon. I thought when he stole first base it was pure comedic genius, and he seemed to have the right attitude (upbeat and aggressive). But he has flown off the handle in the past with the Cards, particularly when he marched across the field in the middle of a game to challenge Tony to a fight (who, to my everlasting delight, immediately popped out of the dugout and started marching right back at Lloyd). But yesterday after everything had calmed down and the players were heading back to their respective dugouts and pens, McClendon was still going after one of the umps, wildly waving his arms and being held back by a coach. Some perspective might be nice there, Skip — no punches were thrown, no one was hit or even knocked down by a pitch, and no one was tossed. Now, maybe that’s just the way he communicates — I’ve known a couple hand-talkers in my day — but I’m not thinking so. If Lloyd gets the mid-season axe, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Bucs go on a little tear like the Royals or Reds (if you can call a three game win streak followed by two losses a “tear”…).

  There was simply no excuse for this man who had "turned over a new leaf" to be ranting and raving out on the field for what appeared to be a minor misunderstanding. Since no perspective was offered by Lloyd post-game, I'm going to assume there isn't anything we don't know.
  
• As recounted by Rory, there was the 9th inning sequence where Lloyd tried his hardest to cost us the game by bunting Mackowiak and setting up a hit and run with Cota. Mackowiak's bat was just coming alive and Cota has been Clutch with a capital "C" this year, taking the bat out of their hands was a bad, bad idea.
  
• And now this. Lloyd has already ranted on the schedule once, around the time of our NY/Boston series'. As the same column notes, the schedule is bad for everyone, St. Louis certainly gets no breaks Don't forget Posada's point when he heard about everyone complaining about the Pirates have to play in Yankee Stadium, due to the Yankees popularity on the road they almost never play afternoon games on get-away days, that's a huge disadvantage all year, compared to one tough month. He won't argue game changing calls because that won't help, but he seems to think whining about umpiring and schedule making will. Let's get a couple things straight. First off, when this schedule was made anyone that would've thought O's and the Nats would be a combined 21 games over .500 on June 28th was probably on drugs. If you look at the schedule with Baltimore as a .500 team and Washington as a (very) sub .500 team (as was thought prior to the year) it lightens up considerably. Not to mention that as a manager you should be happy for how this stretch has turned out. WE'RE 13-13 LLOYD!!! We've learned a hell of a lot more about this team in June than we did during May or April because of how they responded to this schedule. We started out well, and despite all of the shit piled on us in New York, Boston, back home against Washington, and the first three games in St. Louis, we pulled out our second best win of the year on Sunday. The players didn't moan about what a tough schedule it was, they didn't cry because the Yankees, Red Sox, Nationals, and Cardinals had beat up on them. They didn't quit just because they've had a tough stretch of games and Isringhausen was on the mound to close them out, they rallied and they won. That says a hell of a lot about the 2005 edition of the Pittsburgh Pirates. And Lloyd, when all you can do after that game is complain about the schedule, well, that says a hell of a lot about you.

All in all, this has just been a couple weeks of very erratic and unacceptable behavior. Trust me, I'm all for the "new" Lloyd in the right situations, him screaming like a maniac on Tuesday when the umps made the right call and on Sunday over the non-incident were flat out embarassing. There is a time and a place for a manager to miss his cool. Lloyd missed all three of them against the Yanks and Sox, then over compensated later. Add that in with quotes that show he doesn't have much faith in his players and his usual, uneven and way below average game managing skills (let's not forget him overusing an obviously injured Mike Gonzalez, then throwing Bobby Hill a one game start with Sanchez injured where Hill was excellent, then immediately re-burying him on the bench) and, well, like I said, the end of my rope.