The great baseball slugger Ted Williams used to say that “timing is everything” in hitting a baseball.

Thus, the timing of Amarillo’s announcement that it is filling some key administrative positions seems a bit curious.

Why? Well, the city just decided to absorb some key economic development duties, wresting them from Downtown Amarillo Inc., the non-profit agency that has developed a stellar track record in the revival of the city’s downtown district.

So, with the city still lacking individuals filling key administrative posts, it decided to bite off a huge chunk of responsibility from an agency that had been led by someone who’s an expert in the duties that City Hall now wants to take on.

DAI executive director Melissa Dailey is out of the picture. She quit her job this past week on the day before the City Council voted to place those economic duties in the hands of City Hall staffers.

A friend of mine noted on social media today that DAI “is a lot better at that sort of thing. Too bad our City Council is too shortsighted to realize that.”

Yes, it does strike me as curious that the city — which lost its city manager, its assistant city manager, city attorney and utilities director all in the span of a few weeks — would seek to take on an enormous task that had been done so well by another agency.

It’s the timing, man.