Interim manager has got to be a tough gig. If you're taking over for a fired manager, chances are pretty good you're inheriting a pretty crappy team. They're then left with a pretty small sample size of a season to prove that they're good enough to keep the job. If they finish strong, expectations are often too high. If they finish badly, they can be unfairly pushed out the door. Pete Mackanin is in such a position in Cincy right now. He wants to lose the interim tag, but only if the Reds think he deserves it and not because of the Reds' torrid play since he took the job: Mackanin may have trouble keeping his job just because of the bad track record of elevated interims of late. Sam Perlozzo and Jerry Narron, both fired this year, started out as interim managers. The man Narron replaced, Dave Miley, also started as the Reds' interim manager. It's possible new owner Bob Castelinni will just want a chance to start things over and I don't think anyone would blame him if he did, even with how the Reds have played under Mackanin."I feel like I'm in the mix, and I feel like I'm doing as much as I can to help my chances," he said. "I wouldn't want them to have a knee-jerk reaction to that. If and when they do hire me, I'll feel real good about it, instead of just as a reaction.
"I don't think (CEO) Bob Castellini's like that. I think he's going to think long and hard. That's fine with me. I don't want the job on a whim or a knee-jerk reaction because we play well for a week or two."
As you can see, there's still no pictures of Mackanin in Reds' uniform on Getty. Maybe they're trying to tell Castelinni something.
