Random Rumblings (Wifflegate happens everywhere)

(NOTE: The Random Rumblings column appears every Monday, featuring quick thoughts on various issues in the world of sports.)

• You want to believe that stories like last week’s wiffleball field controversy only come from places like Greenwich, CT, a town you’d love to drive through, but one you have no chance of ever living in. You want to believe that only the most pretentious snobs would fight to stop teenagers from playing with a plastic ball and bat.
  
  But the truth is, this happens every day, in your community and in mine. Adults argue that young people are lazier than ever, that computers and video games have trumped going outside and being active – and they’re right. But as soon as kids start acting like kids, everyone watches with concern. You’ve seen it before – the neighbor staring out his window, waiting to call the police as soon as a ball even grazes a blade of his grass.
  
  This happens everywhere. And it’s sad. Young people are considered the nation’s most precious assets, until their presence becomes inconvenient.
  
  Then Wifflegate happens.
  
  
• No matter what happens with Brett Favre, this whole retirement/comeback ordeal is going to tarnish a little bit of legacy. The media might try to push him as a national hero, but I think speak for a lot of people on both coasts when I say that Favre never really meant all that much to us.
  
  A great player, sure, but he’s no Michael Jordan, who is remembered for the duration of his career, not just the end.
  
  The opposite will be true for Favre.
  
  
• I remember when Deadspin was entertaining. No homo.
  
  
• At some point, the rest of baseball should realize that anyone Billy Beane is trading or letting go probably has baggage. Rich Harden, who is almost as sure a thing to break down as Mark Prior, is no exception.
  
  
• How much is Brandon Jennings going to learn from the men he’s playing with in Europe when he is taking one of their jobs?

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If you didn’t know, Billy Beane runs the show in Oakland

Former Oakland A’s skipper Ken Macha sounded off over the weekend about being fired, disagreeing with the notion that “disconnect” (as Billy Beane put it) between he and the team caused his removal.

Instead, he blamed Beane for interfering too much with the day to day operations of the team and said he was uncomfortable with some of the moves his famous general manager wanted him to make. Specifically, Beane wanted Bobby Kielty to start against left handed pitchers throughout the playoffs in place of Mark Kotsay. Macha opted for Kotsay.

I have two problems with most managers. They want to be more of a factor in a game than they actually are and they make too many instinct calls. Beane is genius because he tries to eliminate that. In his system, the manager is forced to make as few decisions as possible, thereby canceling out possible mistakes.

When it comes to making actual game decisions, all the manager has to do is look up a chart and figure out what makes sense. That’s what some fail to see. The numbers don’t lie. If Kotsay stinks against lefties, why wouldn’t you start Kielty? That was a gut call from Macha. Gut calls get you fired. See Grady Little in Boston.

Ultimately, Macha didn’t lose his job over one botched platoon assignment or because he didn’t play the percentages correctly. It’s because he didn’t do what was asked of him.

In Oakland, it’s simple. Win your players over and gain their respect. They know who’s really running the show so you have to go to bat for them more. Have their backs against umpires and the media. Explain to guys on the bench why they aren’t playing. That’s being a manager in Oakland.

It’s apparent Macha failed at that.

(Ironically, Beane also made a piss poor gut call to start Rich Harden over Dan Haren in game three of the ALCS but I guess he’s allowed to do that.)

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