Monday, September 15, 2008
Can you be a manager in MLB?
In the NHL, there are two classes of on-ice officials: the referees, and the linesmen. The two referees make all the important decisions, while the linesmen make the non-goal line calls and break up fights. A referee was once asked why a veteran linesman doesn’t get promoted to referee at some point in his career. His answer was basically that a referee has b-lls and a linesman doesn’t. Whether this is accurate or not, I don’t know.
The same could apply to managers. It’s possible that the difference between the various seemingly incompetent managers than the otherwise more competent managers is that the former are willing to take the heat from fans, media, and management. They have b-lls, and we don’t.