Ed Wade

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Ed Wade (b. January 31, 1956) is a former General Manager of the Philadelphia Phillies.

[edit] Positions with Phillies

Wade started in the Phillies organization in 1990 as the Player Personnel Administrator. He played this role as well as Assistant General Manager for eight years, until his promotion to general manager and vice president in December 1997.

He was general manager of the Phillies from December 1997 until his firing on October 10, 2005.

[edit] Phillies GM

During his tenure as general manager of the Phillies, the team never made a playoff appearance. During his first years as Phillies GM, he and the owners were criticized for being cheap. Before the 2003 season, the team began spending much more money on player salaries, starting with the signing of Jim Thome. The signing was well received in Philadelphia.

Wade was often criticized for signing players who were towards the end of their careers to long term deals worth a lot of money(examples: Mike Lieberthal, Randy Wolf), as well as signing unproven players or below average players to contracts larger then their worth (examples: Pat Burrell). His re-signings of Lieberthal, who was last in the league in 2004 in average with runners in scoring position, and Burrell, who led the league in strikeouts looking in 2006 and is often criticized for poor play in the field, helped lead to his demise.

Wade hired two managers during his tenure. He inherited Terry Francona when he was promoted, whom he fired after the 2000 season. Wade hired former Phillies shortstop Larry Bowa, who led the Phillies to their first winning season since 1993 in 2001, falling just two games short of the postseason. However, some players were intimidated by Bowa's fiery personality, which led to Wade firing him with two games remaining in 2004.

Wade searched publicly for Bowa's replacement, with the choices including Charlie Manuel and Jim Leyland. Fans pushed for Leyland because of his baseball knowledge and success with the Florida Marlins in 1997. However, possibly looking for someone with a personality opposite Bowa's, Wade hired Manuel. Manuel, a very likable person who was close to then star first-basemen Jim Thome, was well received by the team. But the fans have been calling for his firing since he arrived, due to his poor in-game decisions. This hiring and the failure of the 2005 team to make the postseason were the final straws in Wade's career as a Phillie.