ANAHEIM, Calif. — Manager Brad Ausmus has been fired by the Los Angeles Angels after just one difficult season in charge.
Angels general manager Billy Eppler announced the decision to move on swiftly from Ausmus on Monday, a day after they finished 72-90 for the franchise’s worst record since 1999.
The dismissal of Ausmus immediately sparked speculation that former Angels bench coach Joe Maddon, who parted ways with the Chicago Cubs one day earlier, will return to the franchise where he spent three decades of his career.
A candidate of Maddon’s magnitude would be an obvious reason for such an abrupt change of plan by the Angels, who have had four consecutive losing seasons for the first time since 1993-96. Maddon was with the Angels when Arte Moreno bought the ballclub in 2003, and the two have a cordial relationship.
Ausmus got a three-year contract last October as the Angels’ hand-picked replacement for Mike Scioscia, who spent 19 years on the Angels’ bench and won their only World Series title in 2002.
MEDIA: A videographer who collapsed from a heart attack in the visiting dugout at Busch Stadium is alive, thanks in part to a St. Louis Post-Dispatch journalist.
The videographer, 64-year-old Mike Flanary, was in the Chicago Cubs’ dugout Sunday before the game the Cardinals eventually won 9-0 to clinch the National League Central title.
Flanary collapsed and was briefly without a pulse. The Post-Dispatch reports that baseball writer Derrick Goold had CPR training as a youth and rushed to help. The Cubs’ training staff and EMTs performed further medical procedures before Flanary was taken to a hospital.
Flanary was in critical but stable condition. He had suffered a heart attack and a stroke.
The stadium doctor on duty, David Tan, says Goold’s CPR “probably saved” Flanary’s life.
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