Manny Acta ousted in Cleveland despite vote of confidence, Sandy Alomar Jr. takes over

Liar, liar, pants on fire.

Though Cleveland Indians ownership gave Manny Acta a vote of confidence in late August, it turns out that they were meaningless words. The three-year manager of the Tribe was sacked on Thursday afternoon and replaced with Sandy Alomar Jr., who will serve as the interim manager for the rest of the regular season and will also be a very strong candidate for the full-time role in 2013.

Seeing as how Acta was fired even though his job was reportedly safe, I guess that makes the Dolan family a bunch of Indian givers. (For those of you wondering, the answer is yes: I was legally obligated to make that bad joke.)

[Jeff Passan: Rising outfield star left A's system to become a monk]

Acta finishes his tenure in Cleveland just shy of three full seasons and with an overall record of 214-266. To his credit, Acta saw the writing on the wall prior to the vote of confidence and told his flagging team that "if one guy is going to go, it's going to be me." Those words ended up being prescient and Acta is being branded as the scapegoat for a team that has gone 21-50 in the second half, the worst performance of any squad in the American League.

The gregarious Acta is only 43 years old and already he's managed for two different teams, the Indians and the Washington Nationals, a team he saw to a 158-252 record over three seasons. But heading into battles with the poor rosters that Cleveland and Washington gave him should probably earn him sainthood, let alone one more shot with a squad that actually stands a chance on opening day. It'll be interesting to see how much blame other teams in the league assign him and where he eventually ends up.

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