Carleton: Confessions of a fake manager
From Russell Carleton at Baseball Prospectus on November 21, 2017:
I didn’t really manage a baseball team. I didn’t have to switch cities twice a week. I never had to miss one of my kids having a major life event because I was at an away game. I didn’t have to deal with the media. If I wanted to take a night off, I could. I didn’t have to sustain a relentless focus on one thing for three hours a night, and six months of a year. I could knock out a couple of games here and there, and when it suited me, I could tell the computer to just skip to the end of the half-inning (and I did once in a while).
I didn’t have to live with telling a few white lies to cover for my guys when the media came hounding around. I didn’t have to explain my choices to the players, especially when it affected them. I didn’t have to worry about a clubhouse revolt. I didn’t have to break someone’s heart by telling him that he’d been DFA’d. I didn’t have to call pitches. I didn’t have to prepare for endless meetings. I didn’t have to yell at my GM when he wouldn’t make a roster move after a bullpen blowout game. I didn’t have to pull a guy aside and chew him out or convince him to believe in himself, or both. I didn’t have to live with the gnawing feeling in my stomach that goes with all the uncertainty inherent in the job of being a manager.
I am a fake manager. All I really did was to play a video game. But despite all that, I learned a few things.
Read the full article here: https://www.baseballprospectus.com/news/article/35458/confessions-fake-manager-learned/
Originally published: November 21, 2017. Last Updated: November 21, 2017.