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And Now For Something Completely Different, dept.

Geoff Baker has a lively article up on new M's manager Lloyd McClendon.  Geoff has the guts, as he always does, to discuss the fact that McClendon is black, and how this could affect his managing the M's.

Everything you read about McClendon has the same flavor to it.  He reminds me, very much, of my daughter's phlebotomy teacher.

I offer my own take on this below.  As Monty Python would say, if this type of material offends you then ... Don't. Watch.

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There are three schools of thought on MLB managers.

• They don't matter
• They don't matter, except that a Bobby Valentine or Maury Wills can certainly foul things up (managers can add L's; they cannot add W's -- such a joy-joy way to view the world, isn't it?)
• They matter, at least, they matter a lot more than most guys think they do
• They occasionally matter, like, if you're Bobby Cox or Lou Piniella

Wait, that's four?  Hey.  No extra charge.  As you know, we live to serve.

Dr. D believes that managers matter -- especially at higher levels.  They matter quite a bit.  If people perceive that MLB managers can't affect things much, that's probably because they're the 25-30 elite astronauts on the planet, and they're kind of canceling each other out.

That's my opinion; I could be wrong.  Seriously, this is one where there's a decent chance that I could be misunderstanding the world.

But I doubt it.

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If MLB Managers Do Matter

They matter in lots of ways, including but not limited to:

• Having their men in a focused, warrior, state-of-mind at 7:05 pm ::coughLoucough::
• Keeping the clubhouse in a focused, positive state season-long :coughwakamatsucough:
• Getting the right matchups over the course of 162 games (Earl Weaver, over the course of a 3-game series, would wind up with significant percentages)
• Technical instruction (aha!  Kazuhiro Sasaki always comes back with a fastball if he misses forkball first pitch!)
• In-game tactics
• Selecting the right players, notably in Spring Training  :coughPinedacough:
• Helping players to have good seasons overall (WHY does a Chone Figgins play well, or play badly, in a season?  WHY is Carter Capps pitching badly?  What happens if a manager believes in, or doesn't believe in, a player?  The Big Blind Spot of sabermetrics)
• etc

Jack Zduriencik selected one of the above when, politely and obliquely, telling us what he didn't like about Eric Wedge.  Do you know which one it was?

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One thing about Lloyd McClendon:  everybody says that he commands respect.  I'll tell you one reason that he commands my own respect, and the reason may be opaque if you come from Bellevue.

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My daughter is a sweet-natured, white-bread girl from an upper middle class family.  Her grades are real good.  She's never failed at anything, except perhaps with boys... in scholastics and jobs?  Not even possible.

She graduated phlebotomy school, went to work in a residency, and flubbed a couple of blood draws.  Badly.  The patients were upset.  Things spiralled down for her.  On her fourth day, she flubbed 8 out of 10 draws.  She comes home sobbing hysterically.

She's not a weak person, not by any stretch, but ... the medical profession has pressure.  And it's a quieter, more lethal pressure than that in (say) boxing or wrestling.  And this was a threat to her self-esteem at its very foundation.  Most the other students were able to handle the job.  Is she a fake, a poser?  The threat seemed very real.

Daddy sends her in to talk to her instructor, a Grand Master of phebotomy.  This Grand Master is a black woman, a very reserved, professional type, who rose from the ranks coming from a poor background.

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Daughter goes in to ask Sensei what's wrong.  As daugher starts talking, tears come to her eyes.  "I can't understand this!  Why is this HAPPENING to me!"

Sensei gets up, walks over, closes the door.  Comes back.  Sits down.  Looks daughter in the eye.

"You will never hear a black person say that.  Why is this happening to me.  Never.  We don't talk that way."

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"When bad things happen to us, we expect it.  That's the way life is.  If we want something good to happen, we make it happen.  

"You think that a medical career is something you have a right to.  You don't!

"Now if you want a medical career, you've got the training.  Go in tomorrow and do it right.  Nobody's going to help you."

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Daughter went back, the next day, and crushed it.  She's crushed it ever since.  

Sensei's lesson has served her well.  But, of course, there's a difference between getting coached how to think Black, and actually having been born-and-bred to it.  Taking accountability for one's own fate, that isn't always natural to people who have been born rich and privileged. 

This is about 5 degrees off center, but ... the 2001 base that Lloyd McClendon stole, pictured above?  The umpires didn't put up with it, not the way they'd put up with it from Lou.  Probably some racial bias factored in.  McLendon's reaction was not to wallow in the unfairness.  McLendon's reaction was to stop stealing bases, and to pursue his managerial career.

And his day has come.  Here he is, sitting down to an MLB manager's desk, with juicy talent up-and-down the organization, and he is drawing the paycheck of an MLB manager.  It was NOT because life was more fair to him than it was to Eric Wedge.

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People tell you they respect Lloyd McClendon.  My guess is, that it's not a cliche.  I respect him too.  I'm glad that he's got the job here, and cautiously optimistic that he'll do well.

There's a particularly good Elliot Hulse video right here.  Six minutes; the last minute is the best.

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