Over Management, Coaching Etc. and Dusty Baker

If you read my profile, I have earned a living selling products and services, while writing about sports.

There is a parallel between athletic competition and sales.  Ability, technique and competition all play a part in sales and sports.  In sales a salesman must build a rapport with a stranger, control sales resistance and use knowledge and experience to make a sale.

To succeed in sports, an athlete must have skill, athleticism and a good scouting report to master the competition.

In both endeavors, one can do the wrong thing and end up with a good result.  On the flip said a player or salesman can be absolutely perfect and end up with no sale or a loss.

After either there are lessons to be learned.  A sales manager will point out what you did right or wrong.  A coach or manager will also.  Phone sales organizations record sales calls to critique.  Coaches use video to drive home a point.

Salesmen and athletes are undermined when a coach or sales manager can't resist trying to influence the result of a play or sale while its in progress.  Concentration and adjustment on the fly are critical for success.  If a coach is yelling at a batter at the plate to watch this pitch or that, while a 96 mile an hour fastball is on the way to the plate, the hitter is at a disadvantage.  A salesman should never be interrupted while talking to a customer.  Mistakes will be made and strikeouts will occur with or without interference but anything that gets in the way of concentration, creates problems.

Athletes and sales people are inherently competitive, more often aggressive but must not be overly competitive or aggressive.

Dusty Baker hates to lose.  It costs him sleep.  He really has trouble sleeping after a loss.  But he has studied managing coaching and even the "Management Techniques of Atila the Hun" and John Wooden's book.

Last season Baker showed what having faith in his players when they struggled would translate into wins down the road.  Like an investment, Drew Stubbs batting average and Jay Bruce's lack of power and average and propensity for strikeouts cost the Reds some games.

"If you believe in them, you have to let them fail," Baker told the press.  "We traded some lost games early for more wins later."

There are managers and coaches that are more hands on.

Tony La Russa and Bob Huggins come to mind.  While both win, they burn through personnel that would have performed better had they not had one eye on the bench or sideline during play.

La Russa likes to micro-manage and if Albert Pujols wasn't such a great talent, he'd be watching the post season on the sidelines.  He interferes with every thing and takes credit for every win, although he couldn't hit his way out of a tub of jello.

I have been at courtside right next to Huggins at the Cintas Center and Cincinnati Gardens and watched his younger players try to read a defense with one eye on the bench.  When the Cincinnati Bearcats went to the final four, they had good strong players that would tune him out to get the job done.  They were prepared don't get me wrong but during games, they would perform on their own.  I've also seen talented UC teams underachieve because freshman were looking to the sideline and juniors and seniors ignored Huggins.

The late Sparky Anderson said it best.  "Most managers get it wrong.  They get bad players and tell them what to do.  Successful managers get good players and just write out the lineup card."