When a team sucks - someone loses their job . . .

This my friends is a fact of life. Two recent cases in point:
1. The Monday Night Meltdown of the Miami Dolphins cost their special teams coach his job. Sure, the Pat's scored off various special teams failures - but should he have lost his JOB over a signle loss? I would hope there was more to it than just one embarrassing loss (to a division rival on national television). Yes it stings but to fire him?? I think it's a bit rash. I don't know if Dolphins fans out there have another spin on this. Maybe he'd sucked for years and was bungling things all the time. Maybe last night was the proverbial straw. It seems unwarranted.

2. The opposite however is true for old John Russell - the beleagured manager of the crappy Pirates. He was part of the (most recent) 5 year plan for the Pirates to turn things around. He was in year 3 of that 5 year plan. You simply cannot LOSE as much as he did and not pay a price.
I'm sure some of the Pirates faithful (or perhaps John Rusell's mom) would say that he should have had the chance to complete the 5 year plan. Or one could make the very valid point that not even the greatest manager in the game could make this a winning team. No talent is no talent, no matter how hard you try to coach them.

BUT - when you're averaging about 100 LOSSES A SEASON (that's right Yankee fans, take that in - 100 LOSSES A SEASON) with absolutley ZERO trend upward - I'm sorry you gotta go. I don't expect a coach to take this team and make them playoff contenders in one year but please - in THREE years - show me SOMETHING.

Now here's the question Pirates management - does this restart the 5 year plan??? Gosh I hope not . . . I sure would like to live in a city with a winning team once again. (Love ya Yankees!)