Hall of Fame manager Bobby Cox passed away a couple of weeks ago at the age of 84. You might as well say the same for managing in Major League Baseball. The role has passed away.
Baseball has changed for the worse now that managers are limited in what they can do in the dugout at their bosses’ behest. Nowadays, the president of baseball operations sets the lineup and the bullpen on a given day based on analytics. Rather than making decisions on their own, they have to operate at the whim of their bosses.
It all started with then-Oakland Athletics executive Sandy Alderson making out the lineup on who to play for then-A’s manager Art Howe in the mid-90s, and he did the same thing when he ran the Mets. Then, Alderson’s protégé, Billy Beane, did the same thing that had Michael Lewis write the book Moneyball. The A’s executive was operating behind the scenes in scripting a game.
In New York, Yankees baseball boss Brian Cashman and Mets baseball boss David Stearns are doing the same thing.
You can see why Stearns wasted no time firing then-Mets manager Buck Showalter. Showalter would not put up with his nonsense. If Stearns had his way, he’d likely prefer having a player-manager, but that’s outlawed in MLB play. So the option was hiring “yes man” Carlos Mendoza, and Mendoza plays that role well.
In the Bronx, Aaron Boone (in his ninth year at the helm) has yet to win a World Series. It’s hard to come up with one move he’s made over those years that shows he is a solid manager.
Courtesy: Bronx Baseball Daily
Contrast that to how Joe Girardi wanted to handle then-catcher Gary Sanchez. Girardi wanted more out of his catcher, while Cashman wanted him handled with care. Girardi is gone, and Cashman remains.
Lesson: “Strong” managers like Girardi are now an historical artifact.
That means we don’t have Tony La Russa or Dusty Baker matching wits, and we no longer have the likes of Bobby Valentine (a “unique” manager, if you will), who will be inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame later this month. Same for seeing another Tom Kelly or Lou Pinella, Ron Gardenhire, or the aforementioned Bobby Cox.
It’s hard to say who’s a great manager anymore. Yes, there’s Terry Francona, but who else?
You can argue that things like Instant Replay and the Designated Hitter have taken some of the shine off managerial brilliance, but that line of reasoning doesn’t go very far. A more likely scenario is that “follow orders I give” is happening across industries. The CEO says what goes, and those in the reporting line have a choice: follow orders or suffer consequences.
The front office has destroyed the game. Business geeks who never played the game think they know more than managers who did. Gone are the days when you hired the best available talent with the best fit and then turned him loose to do his thing.
The sorry evolution of MLB is not just a loss for the game played on the field. It also hurts fan interest. How so? Managerial moves have always been at the heart of fan dialogue about the game, during the season and after in the Hot Stove League.
Those days are gone, and the game suffers mightily because of it.
