Loading ...Joe Posnanski is back blogging, and he’s just absolutely absurdly good. Here’s today’s post, about last night’s Tribe-Yankees game. It’s a great explanation of the difference — and difference in importance — between managing in-game strategy and managing a baseball team. This is an issue I’ve tried to write about several times in the past, but as usual, Poz makes me ashamed to even try.
Poznanski right now is something very rare: A professional who is the best in his field, by such a great degree that it’s absurd to even compare him to his “peers.” He’s in his prime, and it’s a privilege to read him every day. For free. The only comparables I can think of are Vin Scully, Tiger Woods, Barry Bonds, and Roger Federer.
Check it out, and I promise I’ll keep the fanboy stuff to a minimum.
Why did you mention Barry Bonds?
In that list, each is an individual that is utterly dominant in their particular arena: “the best in his field by…a great degree.” Bonds is certainly that, regardless of how you think he got there.
That’s a good, clearcut explanation of the two main duties of a field manager. There’s no way currently to really quantify the impact of a manager as motivator, as the leader who drives his players to simply perform better.
Thanks for the referral – should I be ashamed that I’d never heard of Posnanski before?
Exactly, DA. Bonds, especially from 2000-04, was performing at a level we might never see again in our lifetime. There are certainly good points to be made about how he did it, but it’s the kind of thing I hope everyone paid close attention to while it was going on.