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It should be noted that the World Series, which opens Tuesday evening at Fenway Park in Boston, features two directors who had never held this position until they accepted the positions they currently held. . Dave Roberts was a coach with the San Diego Padres when the Los Angeles Dodgers hired him in the winter before the 2016 season. His performances so far: three division titles, two consecutive National League pennants – with a world championship still possible.
Alex Cora coached when the Houston Astros won the World Series last year, after which he took over the Boston Red Sox. All he did for his debut was to win more games than any manager in the 118 years of the franchise, and then open the playoffs with seven wins in nine tries against two teams of 100 victories.
So, it would seem that the modern baseball formula is: Build a list of top quality players, then give it to someone who has never done the job.
Expect. Can someone call Dave Martinez on the phone?
The good thing about this match: This is the first time that two minority managers – Cora is Puerto Rican; Roberts is born of Japanese and African-American parents – will face each other in a world series. If this even brings a single owner or general manager to broaden his view that could make a good candidate to run his club, it's great.
Fortunately, we have passed this stage and we are just reaching an annual fall tradition. On the eve of each world series, a quest begins to find something in common between the pennant winners. Here are two for the fall: the Red Sox ($ 228.4 million, according to spotrac.com) and the Dodgers ($ 199.6 million) spend exorbitantly in salaries of players, ranking first and third, respectively in the major leagues. And both handed their championship-worthy lineups to former players – former teammates, in fact – who had never been so successful in a minor league match.
Now, is this a trend? In recruiting, of course, as there were six new managers in the majors to start this season, and only one (Ron Gardenhire, of Detroit) had already succeeded. But in success? Well, let's hold on a bit. Of the 10 teams that reached the playoffs this year, half were under the direction of men who had never held the position before their current position. Joining Cora and Roberts: Aaron Boone of the New York Yankees, Craig Counsell of the Milwaukee Brewers and Brian Snitker of the Atlanta Braves (although Snitker has many years of experience in managing minor leagues).
This means, of course, that half had experience. The post-season was indeed dotted with old hands (Terry Francona of Cleveland, Joe Maddon of the Chicago Cubs, Bob Melvin of Oakland, Bud Black) and a younger character who had a chance to win. 39 to be an even younger character, only to be fired, grow and prosper in a new opportunity (AJ Hinch of Houston).
The point, however, is not really the experience. The point concerns the requirements and the parameters of the work. These have changed – and quickly.
Whether it's Cora and Roberts or the two men they beat in the league championship series – Hinch and Counsell, respectively – it's worth thinking about what's expected of the modern manager. That's not what it was when Boston's Bill Carrigan beat Wilbert Robinson of Brooklyn in five games to win the 1916 World Series – the only time these franchises have played off since the end of the season. That's not what it was when Tommy Lasorda and – pick one – Don Zimmer or Ralph Houk or John McNamara oversaw these franchises in the 1970s and 80s. Heck, this is not it not even what it was when the predecessors of Cora and Roberts – John Farrell and Don Mattingly, respectively – were leading the canoe.
As they are the face of the post-season, the managers have a disproportionate exposure at this time of the year. In the playoffs, baseball clubs are closed to journalists before matches – a system that reduces the number of views of players shared publicly. But officials speak to the media twice a day. They are interviewed between the sleeves in the dugout. The manager does not have to focus on the manager, as was the case with Boone in the Yankees' defeat by the Boston League. The focus is always on the manager because he is the only character on which one can constantly focus.
This gives the manager an appearance of disproportionate importance. But this is only an appearance. Do not get me wrong: do I think that the 2018 Washington Nationals would have won more games with Dusty Baker (total wins in his two seasons: 95 and 97) than with Martinez (mark of 39; one year: 82-80)? Yes. Yes. (Also, fans of Nats: Do not regret that your team chose Martinez rather than Cora, who is equally available.This is not the case.When Washington decided to get rid of Baker, he reached out to Cora, but he was off to a good start for the Red Sox.)
Anyway, the years of the manager as a personality and the pulse of a club are dwindling – by design. The manager no longer indicates how a club will be managed. More than ever, managing a season – or a series, a match or a round – is a team sport. The team includes not only the management staff, but also the general manager and the other members of the front office.
Roberts, for example, is an important figure in the pursuit of the first World Series title by the Dodgers since Lasorda – with the not-insignificant help of Kirk Gibson hobbled – which angered Oakland 30 years ago. But the direction of the franchise – over a decade and a week – is determined by Andrew Friedman, president of baseball operations, and by Farhan Zaidi, general manager.
It is true with which the club will continue the offseason or the repêchage, the traditional roles of the front office. But now, it's true who will launch when and for how long. This is true with who will hit where and against whom. The tenor of the club is always defined by the manager. But in many cases this manager has to carry water for the front office.
Think of the Hall of Fame category of 2014. It included three managers: Bobby Cox, Tony La Russa and Joe Torre. Who among the current group of managers defines his team in the same way as Cox, his Braves, La Russa, his A and Cardinals, and Torre, his Yankees? Maybe Bruce Bochy with these three World Series titles in San Francisco. And maybe the Indians with Francona, who could join this lot at Cooperstown again.
But even with Maddon, with his unconventional personality and record of success in both Tampa Bay and Chicago, will Cubs fans give him more credit for the 2016 World Series title or, for example, the 39, baseball architect Theo Epstein?
The answer these days is easy. Epstein and his general manager, Jed Hoyer, built the system and the team. Epstein is the savior.
In a week or 10 days, either Roberts or Cora will have his title. One or the other will be asked to comment on the path that he took to hold this trophy. Whatever the personal story told, it makes sense, and the office that hired the tenant – Dave Dombrowski in Boston or Friedman and Zaidi in Los Angeles – will be able to say what qualities he saw at one or the other man who made it fit perfectly.
But the honest answer, no matter who wins, is that Cora and Roberts are just small pieces in the increasingly larger organizational machinery of baseball. You will see them on television and they will talk about their teams. But the Red Sox are not Cora and the Dodgers are not Roberts. It is not their fault. That's how reception offices do it now, on purpose.
First Published by the Washington Post
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