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Elephants fire Ryan Cullen

Discussion in the CPBL News forum
Elephants fire Ryan Cullen
Ryan Cullen had a few good seasons in Taiwan but the one thing that most fans will remember him for is his final appearance in a Brother Elephants uniform on April 25th. In the top half of the ninth inning against the Sinon Bulls in a 9-9 tie Cullen threw one pitch and walked off the mound into the dressing room. He did pitch 1 1/3 innings in the game.

The following day he said that he felt his shoulder tighten up after that pitch and that his walking off the mound wasn't a statement directed at the umpire, fans or anybody else. However, Elephants general manager Hong Yun-ling, the first female GM in the CPBL, said his attitude wasn't acceptable.

This season he was 1-2 with 4 saves in 7 opportunities and a 2.08 ERA in 13 games.
Comments
Re: Elephants fire Ryan Cullen
[ Author: westbaystars | Posted: Apr 29, 2012 10:42 AM | YBS Fan ]

Whoops. Sounds like a serious communication problem. He didn't call for time, have the trainer come out to discuss the problem on the mound, then come out of the game? Such a show might have saved him from what sounds like a baffling departure the sparked all kinds of speculative stories which led to this.
Re: Elephants fire Ryan Cullen
[ Author: mondejoe | Posted: Apr 30, 2012 1:50 AM | YOK Fan ]

There's a video of it on Youtube: [Link]
Re: Elephants fire Ryan Cullen
[ Author: westbaystars | Posted: Apr 30, 2012 9:24 AM | YBS Fan ]

Thank you for the video.

If all people saw was that final replay, then I can see why people would be upset with him. He threw the pitch, it was a ball inside. The catcher threw the ball back to him, Cullen then flipped the ball toward the mound and walked off the field. If I hadn't watched him all the way to the dugout where the manager pointed to his shoulder, then told the umpire it was a shoulder problem, and the umpire told the scorer it was a shoulder problem, then I'd think he just walked off upset about something; throwing in the towel and burning bridges behind him.

It's a good illustration of how important the full context of something is. If the news cuts off before he meets the trainer outside the dugout, the video doesn't portray Cullen in a very good light.
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