Charlie Manuel was supposed to push the buzzer when he needed help from a nurse. He was supposed to let a cane help support his weakened body. He was supposed to use a walker after his September stroke.
“I took them home,” confessed Manuel, the Philadelphia Phillies winningest manager in club history. “I never used them. The nurses would get mad because I wouldn’t turn my buzzers on to go to the bathroom. They were afraid I was going to fall. Sometimes I did fall.”
Manuel, at Reading’s FirstEnergy Stadium on Wednesday for Strike Cancer Night, never let those hospital falls stop him from bouncing back. He’s far too strong for that. He already endured far too much in his 80 years of life to not know what it takes to fight back.
The man with 780 career wins while at the helm in Philadelphia battled back from a heart attack that led to quadruple bypass, diverticulitis, kidney cancer, gout and several bladder surgeries. He’ll tell you that the diverticulitis was the most painful but that the recovery from the stroke was like nothing he had ever experienced. He had physical therapy because he had temporary paralysis on his right side and couldn’t utter a word for more than two weeks.
“There was a long period of time when he was in rehab and we went home and he didn’t really see anybody,” Missy Manuel, Charlie’s wife, said. “He was really self-conscious about his speech. He did not want to see anybody. In the beginning there he had a lot of depression.
“I’ve taken care of him through some serious health issues. But this one really got him. It was scary because it’s the brain. But he’s so resilient.”
To help counter the sad days, he’d read text messages from friends and those in the baseball world – there were countless – and he’d listen to voicemails and recordings people left him. There were actually hours and hours of audio to perk him up.
“I can tell you this – 75 percent of the people who called me told me that they loved me,” Charlie Manuel said. “And some of the guys were guys who I never thought I’d hear that from. Sometimes it’s hard for a man to tell a man that they love them. Really. But when you really know somebody and you know that they meant it, it means more to you.”
When his speech did finally start to return, it came in bits and pieces thanks to intensive speech therapy. Sometimes he had two sessions a day. At first, he’d be able to say one word at a time, then two words. Little by little, he’d add words until he could string a sentence together.
“I had periods where I could hear people talk, but I couldn’t talk,” Manuel recalled. “When I couldn’t talk back, it got really frustrating, and I used to really get uptight about it, and I would think that I might never talk or walk. The talking was hard. I started improving when the second [speech language pathologist] that I had started talking about baseball. She brought a book with all of Babe Ruth’s stats, and we started talking about baseball and I started getting better.”
That’s because baseball, particularly hitting, has always been the driving force for Charlie Manuel. He’s more comfortable leaning against the back of a batting cage than most anywhere else. He’d rather analyze a player’s swing or get your opinion about a hitter than talk about the No. 1 show on TV. He found himself doing it Wednesday when he dissected Luis Arraez’s swing.
Arraez led the National League in hitting each of the last two seasons and is currently batting .310.
“Now-a-days, many players don’t like practices,” Charlie Manuel said. “I’m a repetition guy. I’ve always taught people that. You need to work on mechanics and your swing, but at the same time, you need a lot of reps. A good example is [Arraez]. He works hard and he made a hitter out of himself. I can tell that from his swing, his plate coverage and what he can do with the bat. There are no shortcuts to being a good hitter.”
Charlie Manuel has helped develop plenty of good hitters – Jim Thome, Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Jayson Werth, Shane Victorino to name a few – and others he’s watching now – Bryce Harper, Trea Turner, Alec Bohm.
He took his team to five consecutive playoff appearances, including two World Series, one of which ended with a trophy in 2008. The most recent run includes the 2022 team losing to the Houston Astros in the World Series and last year’s club falling to the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NLCS.
So, that begs the question – Who would win? The 2008 team or the 2024 team?
Without even a flinch, Charlie Manuel said, “2008,” which was followed by a subtle, yet proud grin.
It’s the grin he flashed so many times at Citizens Bank Park. It’s the grin that won over tens of thousands every night. It’s the same grin that tells you he’s really much closer to himself now than he was 7-8 months ago.
“I talk to everybody I see now. I used to just talk to a few people,” he said. “Now I talk to everybody.”
That’s the Charlie Philadelphia Phillies fans love.
