As fans, we often get fairly cocky about our knowledge of the sport. We make sweeping generalizations about a manager and a decision based upon our own store of experience, often criticizing moves as being clearly wrong. However, in actuallity, baseball is a complex sport that often presents multiple reasonable courses of action. Yet we tend to see things in absolutes: my way or the highway.
Let me give an example. In the 6th inning of last night’s game, Robbie Cano hit a leadoff double. Jerry Hairston Jr was not bunting, the Yankees did not score, and lost by one run. Many at Lohud were livid, and are still complaining about that idiot Girardi costing the Yankees the game. Conversely, most fans at RAB were pleased by the non-bunt. Two fan bases, both sure of the correctness of their convictions. Yet, to be honest, neither is really right or wrong. Either course of action would have been reasonable and defensible, yet as fans we automatically assume that we know better than the manager. This leads to a hypercritical view of the manager, as every move that does not fit our particular philosophy is ripped as being indicative of bad managing.
Am I saying that we need to stop analyzing managerial decisions? Certainly not. But I think that we need to remember that the course of action that we would have taken is not necessarily the only right move. Just because the manager has a different philospohy does not necessarily mean that he is always wrong. Sometimes, the manager just knows better.
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8 Responses to The ''I Always Know Better Than The Manager''Syndrome
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TIQ IQ
Haha, good one.
I´ve always wonder how come us the fans, that follow this game as a hobbie, think we know more than the guys that do this as a living. LOL
Good man.
It’s simple to fans: if it works, the manager is right, if it doesn’t work, the manager is wrong. I’m sure everyone doesn’t have that mindset but I feel like that is the way a lot of fans view things. If Girardi pinch hit with CC Sabathia in the ninth and he hit a walk-off home run fans would be praising him for being the best manager in baseball when, in fact, that would be a terrible move.
Actually I think Girardi doesn’t get that luxury, for the most part when he makes good decisions fans say it was luck, or it just happen to work that time, or it could have been done better… He gets no credit and all the blame, I really don’t understand the Girardi hate when the guy has use 5 1/2 up in the East and we just came off sweeping the Sawx.
I just have a problem with Mitre still having a rotation spot.
Who takes it from him? You need Gaudin to take Chamberlain’s start so if you give Mitre’s spot to Gaudin then you still have to start Mitre for Joba. Do you really think Russ Ortiz would be better than Mitre? Because I don’t and I have watched the guy pitch his way out of Houston and that’s with the NL Astros. So who do you get to start? Igawa? Nova? Towers? There really is no one else to turn to unless the Yankees pick up another pitcher like Gaudin to take Mitre’s spot for good and the only guy available who would be cheapish would be a Jon Garland type, and we already owe like 3 PTBNL…
One way of looking at it, that fits with the original idea, is that all managers are idiots when it comes to in-game and lineup decisions. What makes a manager bad or great, is how much he gets out of his players over a long period of time. It also depends on fit: Joe Torre-Great manager of the 1990′s Yankees, not so good after 2001. He didn’t change; the situation changed.
I am a big fan of the Lohud blog, however the fans that post during the games are morons. Well some of them, there are a handful of regulars there that are very knowledgeable. However I think a lot of posters that used to be at yesnetwork.com, the lowest forum in terms of fan IQ, have migrated to Lohud. Just gotta ignore them, plus we can mock them when the Yankees win, which is quite often recently.