Justice weighs in

So Richard Justice has some opinions. Among them:

The Astros waited until a season had been lost to make a move they should have made months ago. The maddening thing is, the people in charge knew there was a problem.

They could see that Cecil Cooper didn't know how to run a game. They also knew he'd lost 75 percent of the players in his clubhouse.

I'm not saying this season could have been saved, but if Dave Clark had been given the job at the All-Star Break, it would have lifted a cloud from the clubhouse.

Players have been wearing t-shirts asking, ''Really?'' Really, as in, ''Did he really just do that?"...

(Note: If that's true, that pisses me off)

... Dave Clark is held in enormous respect in the clubhouse. He paid his dues as a minor league manager, and players respect him across the board.

Will he be a good manager? There's no way to know. Managers can't really be evaluated until they have a chance to manage.

Listen, Cecil Cooper was put in a bad spot. He was given a bad team to manage. It's unlikely any manager could have gotten a winning record out of this group.

But Coop must be evaluated apart from the record. Did he do his job well? He did not."