Neyer: Managing, then and now
From SABR member Rob Neyer at The National Pastime Museum on June 28, 2016:
Last year I read a story by ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick, with this headline:
Why managing is harder than ever
Within the actual story, Crasnick doesn’t make that argument, precisely. Anyway, his interviewees do most of the arguing. And they’re arguments I’ve seen before, here and there over the years.
In Crasnick’s story, he quotes Tony La Russa: “In the old days it was all about the power of the position. You were the manager and you said, ‘We’re going to do this,’ and the players said, ‘Yes sir.’ Now it’s your responsibility to earn their respect and trust. Then you personalize it by showing that you care about them. It’s really about back-to-basic values.”
We all like to believe that we live in a special time and must surmount obstacles that our lesser forebears didn’t. To be sure, La Russa and his contemporaries have dealt with obstacles hardly imagined 50 or 100 years ago. Still, I think it’s instructive to look at managing and what we might call (for lack of a better word) durability.
Read the full article here: http://www.thenationalpastimemuseum.com/article/managing-then-and-now
Originally published: June 28, 2016. Last Updated: June 28, 2016.