Sam Perlozzo, as expected, was let go the Baltimore Orioles, a franchise that was one of the major's perennial jewels. The O's have not made the postseason or even broken .500 for a season since 1997, and they show no signs of ending either streak this year.

That year they fired their manager Davey Johnson after a Manager of the Year award-winning season. In nine and (almost) one-half seasons since Johnson, the Orioles have gone through four managers—soon to be five.

In 1997, Baltimore won the AL East by two games over the Yankees and 20 over the 78-84 Red Sox. Since 1997, they are one of three franchises—the Pirates and the Devil Rays being the other—who have not had a winning season while the Yankees and Red Sox are the only two franchises to have a winning record every season since 1997. Both are over .500 this year as well.

Clearly, the problems for the O's run deeper than one lousy manager, but Perlozzo has done his best to rank among the worst managers of the last twenty-five years. He ranks eighth worst among all managers active within the last quarter of a century, and there are a good number of doozies in that mix (min. 243 games, which equates to one and one-half seasons):

There are some really dreaded recent managers that were active in the early part of this decade (McClendon, Muser, Trammell, Bell, etc.). Now just Bell remains active on this worst managers list.

Perlozzo was never so dreaded by analysts as these other execrable pilots—then again, I'm not an O's fan. However, was a model of sub-mediocrity consistency, registering a winning percentage between .418 and .432 in each of his three seasons.

One has to wonder if the spate of sabermetric-minded general managers in the post-Moneyball era has led to more sabermetric-friendly managers. With Bell's inability to get out of the AL Central in parts of three seasons in KC, one has to wonder how much more time he will be allowed to ply his trade with that floundering franchise (if anyone in Kansas City still cares). Should the Phils miss the playoffs again this season, Charlie "I Need A Figgin'" Manuel is likely to be made the scapegoat.

Could the day once come when double-guessing becomes a thing of the past? Heaven forfend!