“There are three things that the average man thinks he can do better than anybody else: build a fire, run a hotel and manage a baseball team.”
That’s a quote from Rocky Bridges, the former journeyman infielder and longtime minor league manager. Rocky made the AL All-Star team with the ’58 Senators, and managed in the bushes for 20 years. He knows exactly what he’s talking about.
When the news came that Jim Riggleman and his staff would return in 2011, there were some particularly nasty comments left on some Internet message boards. There are still some fans, obviously, who believe that a team’s W-L record reflects more heavily on their skipper than on actual personnel. Many of those fans now believe the Orioles are a genuine .596 winning percentage team under Buck Showalter, a mark that will guarantee them a spot in the playoffs next year. They should put every penny they’ve got on that bet — if they’re so convinced.
It’s not just a local phenomenon, either. Minnesota’s Ron Gardenhire has finished first in 6 of his 9 seasons at the helm of the Twins, yet many fans in that region blame him entirely for the lack of another World Series title. Eric Wedge managed the Indians for 7 years, and twice won more than 90 games in a very competitive AL Central. He’s in the conversation for managerial openings with at least three other franchises, but a number of Cleveland fans are posting some rather unfortunate comments about him on those other team’s boards.
Basically, if you look at all 30 team’s message board/chat rooms you’ll find some very ugly — and usually baseless but occasionally hilarious — criticisms, from the simple “he tends to overmanage” to the classic, and still my favorite, “it’s obvious that he’s lost the clubhouse.”
Look, you can sit around all day and pretend you know what goes on in a big league clubhouse and you won’t come close to the truth, unless you’ve actually been there as a player or coach. Any media member who tries to tell you they know may come up with an educated guess, but it’s no more than that.
Winning has always been, and will always be about player personnel. Sure, there have been a handful of managers historically who overachieved, winning more games than they had any right to win. Overall, though, the very best managers may mean an extra 3-5 wins per season. That’s it.
So, if there’s not a big difference, why so many changes? The easy explanation is that it’s easier to fire one guy than 25, but a big part of many changes is simple marketing. Stick a new guy in the dugout after a disappointing season and hope it sells some tickets.
Would a different manager have won more than 69 games with Riggleman’s personnel? It’s possible, but it’s just as likely they wouldn’t. We’ll never know. What we do know and have seen over and over again is that consistency — in the front office and the dugout — has a payoff.
Examiner columnist Phil Wood is a contributor to Nats Xtra on MASN. Contact him at [email protected].
