On Oct. 2, 2004, Larry Bowa was asked to vacate his managerial job in Philadelphia. That request came from the Phillies. On the surface, he was furious, but he also knew that one day he would return to the team because his blood was not red just for biological reasons. His chair at the ballpark was occupied by Charlie Manuel, a man with a crude southern drawl who several years earlier had been fired by the Cleveland Indians. Could these two men possibly become best of friends one day and make Phillies fans crazy about them in an entirely different way?
_Apologies to the opening of the hit 1970s sitcom The Odd Couple, starring Jack Klugman and Tony Randall
