Which Manager Has Been Best? A look Back..

Did you know that with the Soft J’s win last Wednesday night, the Soft J’s career record moved above .500 for the first time in their storied history?

Thinking about that made me think about how each manager contributed to the J’s and how different each manager’s strategy has been. For example look at the Founder, Ryan Djernes, known to most as the worst manager in J’s history. Ryan’s main effort was to get J’s comfortable with the sport of Softball, which he never came close to accomplishing. Although the offense didn’t have the worst numbers (See Sean Djernes) their defense had more holes than a Jamaican highway. (Thank you Rick Ross) With a 2-10 record, Ryan spent more time designing clothes then working on the fundamentals and that became obvious real quick.

Next Djernes to take the reigns was the artist formally known as Lil Sean. Sean’s time in power was nearly as bad as his older brothers and like other monarchy’s, the people would eventually rise up and remove him from power. While his stay lasted though, Sean was known as a gruesome tyrant. Sean moved the game nights from the sacred Thursday night games to the weekend which can now be looked back upon as one of the bigger blunders in Soft J history. The J’s didn’t have their full team once that year and their record indicated how bad they struggled. Sean who was more interested in watching paint dry than putting together a solid offense, he put all of his resources towards defense. Still to this day his squad has the second best Runs Allowed Per Game. Sean also was in charge in a game that most J’s would consider the turning point in the franchise. The Soft J’s matched up against the best team in the league, The Tri P’s (All black and they had the best softball player seen to date – 50 cent) and they held them to only 2 runs. Sure the J’s had 1 and lost the game but the message was clear, this team was now for real.

Paul Farinacci Jr. took over the reigns full time in Season 3 and with his leadership the team put together the first respectable season to date – 7-5. Paul correctly decided to move game nights back to Thursday and the J’s became a formidable force for the first time in their history. Controversy quickly followed Paul though, just as previous leaders, some say the power got to his head. The nastiest thing Paul did was trick all of his players to believe that if they won the final game of the year they would automatically qualify for the playoffs. Not only did they lose the game due to the amount of pressure they put on themselves but Paul later explained that he made up the whole Playoff scenario.

The latest manager hire by Ryan Djernes has proven to be the best hire in recent history, with the signing of Jason Lepore. What Jason has done has been truly unexplainable; he took a bunch of really good looking guys and turned them into a Softball Dynasty. Some say Jason’s tactics are barbarian esq., he candidly admits that he wants all of his players to use steroids. Jason has said in the past that if the league is not going to test, we are going to juice. With only 3 losses in his tenure, (One to a team with a MLB player) losses have become a lost art to the new look J’s. Jason holds all of the coaching records including most runs scored per game, and least runs allowed per game. Jason will not be leaving his position anytime soon after Ryan Djernes locked him into a 25 year contract for a reported 30 dollars and a lap dance at the SC, signed last April. Look for Jason’s numbers to keep improving as the J’s continue to get better and better.