Manager

On Thursday, Charlie Manuel will pass Gene Mauch as the longest-serving manager in Phillies history, which is quite an accomplishment given the historically poor record the Phillies compiled until recent days. Manuel is not only the dean of Philadelphia team managers, but he is also unusual in that he has remained popular with a fan base known for its toughness and fickleness. The two managers were vastly different characters. Mauch was the baseball sharpie, honed in the Leo Durocher image of knock down your mother if it means winning a game.

Union team manager John Hackworth is going to be light on his wallet and he realizes this fact. Hackworth, who is no stranger to criticizing officiating, made statements after Saturday's 2-2 Major League Soccer draw with the Seattle Sounders at PPL Park that will no doubt get the attention of the league office. In fact he even prefaced it before going on a rant. "So many parts of the game that were mismanaged by the officials, I don't even know what to say," Hackworth said. "I will raise my hand and take the fine because it has to be said that we can't be in the league and have that level of play and have officiating as bad as that.

William J. Flemming, 53, of Chalfont, a former fleet manager for Peco, died Saturday, April 27, at his home. The cause of death was natural causes, according to his death certificate. Mr. Flemming had been a heart patient. Born in Philadelphia, he was the son of Francis and Mary McCaffrey Flemming. Mr. Flemming was a 1977 graduate of Interboro High School. He graduated in 1981 from Albright College in Reading with a degree in business management. He started with Peco (then Philadelphia Electric Co.)

THE DOCUMENTARY "No Place on Earth" doesn't seem as if it should work quite as well as it does. A History Channel production, the tale of Ukrainian Jews who survived in underground caves for 511 days while hiding from the Nazis during World War II is structured around lengthy, foreign-language re-enactments of the events featuring costumed performers. Why not just commit to the undeniably thrilling theatricality of the story and make a fictionalized dramatic feature? Instead, Emmy-winning documentarian Janet Tobias ("Life 360")

HARRISBURG - Dusty Wathan played 14 minor-league seasons, and this is his sixth year managing in the Phillies system. But the Reading Fightin Phils manager is having a difficult time recalling a more impressive performance than the one that lefthander Jesse Biddle delivered Monday. The Phillies prospect pitched seven shutout innings, allowing one hit and two walks while striking out 16 in a 3-2 win over the Harrisburg Senators, the double-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals. Biddle had a perfect game before he walked a batter with one out in the seventh inning.

NOT TO WAX nostalgic, but Center City used to be the place to shop. There were four major department stores - Gimbels, Lit Bros., Strawbridge & Clothier and John Wanamaker's - all within a few blocks of each other. To a young James Kenny, department stores were exciting places. He fell so in love with the business during the early 1970s that he skipped medical school to focus on retail, never dreaming how drastically things would change. Kenny retired this month from Macy's after almost 42 years in an industry that's undergone huge transformations.

Phillies skipper Charlie Manuel is the favorite to be the first manager fired this season, according to online sportsbook Bovada . Although Manuel was beloved during the Phillies run of five straight division titles, topped by the World Series win in 2008, he's now 69, in the last year of his contract, and the team's off to another slow start, falling to 6-9 after getting swept by the Cincinnati Reds. This morning, sports yakker Angelo Cataldi led a call for Manuel's ouster, saying, "We would really love it to happen," promoting a poll and getting lots of agreement from callers.

CINCINNATI - The Phillies and Reds all wore the number 42 on the backs of their uniform jerseys on Monday night in honor of Major League Baseball's annual tribute to Jackie Robinson. Robinson became the first African-American to play in a major league game on April 17, 1947, with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Robinson began his career as a civil rights pioneer and went on to have a Hall of Fame career. Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said on Monday he was a Dodgers fan growing up in Virginia and remembers Robinson starring in an All-Star Game.

Susquehanna Bank, Camden, hired Dan Decker as commercial relationship manager in the Central Jersey Region. He had been vice president of commercial lending for Liberty Bell Bank. Marc Hirsch has been hired as vice president, market manager for the Wayne, Bryn Mawr, and Ardmore sections of the suburbs. He had been a senior business consultant at Wells Fargo Bank N.A. Patricia Roos has been hired as vice president, market manager in the Delaware Valley region. Roos had been a regional bank private banker for Wells Fargo.

When Freedom Academy Charter School was put on state probation last year - its charter was in jeopardy because of poor academic results - it hired a New York charter management organization as an academic consultant while continuing a partnership with a local group to oversee its finances. Eventually, both of those groups submitted bids to run the troubled Camden school as it came up for a five-year charter renewal this year. On Thursday, the state Department of Education renewed Freedom Academy's charter after asking for and receiving a management agreement between Freedom and Democracy Prep Public Schools, the New York charter school network that recently received a $9 million federal grant to expand its footprint.