Over a year ago, I wrote a blog about my frustrations with the Los Angeles Dodgers. I got pretty heated up because I truly bleed Dodger Blue. In my September 2007 blog, I wrote about some pretty specific stuff. Namely, I wrote that Grady Little is to blame for their stretch run collapse. It was widely reported in the media that the '07 Dodgers were spending more time and energy on internal warfare than on winning the pennant.
Look at the Dodgers of this year. Under new manager Joe Torre, the Dodgers play the first game of the NLCS tonight against the Philadelphia Phillies. This year, the team actually overdelivered during the stretch run - the exact opposite of last year. Torre has also made a clear cut decision on how he would approach the season. He placed a bet on the young guns and got the veterans to buy in wholeheartedly. Today, future stars like Martin, Kemp, Ethier, and Loney are everyday position players who bring their "A" game to the park day-in and day-out. Veterans like Kent, Furcal, and Pierre play supporting roles with full commitment. Superstar Manny Ramirez (in his own category) crushes homers and keeps everybody relaxed and loosened up.
There is no clubhouse dissent. All of their focus is aimed at beating the competition. The '08 Dodgers are all aiming toward a singular goal - winning the World Series.
Can one man make such a big difference? The media has been talking endlessly about the positive effects of adding Manny and Casey Blake to this year's lineup. While I agree that both of their bats (and attitudes) have helped, I totally credit Joe Torre for bringing a winning attitude to the team. Rhetoric without action means nothing. Torre brought with him a clear strategy and plan. He didn't waver like Grady Little before him. Torre made a decision to invest in the future of the franchise - youth - and asked the veterans to sacrifice a little for a lot (championship rings). On the tactical front, Torre also understood that both the upstarts and veterans needed to be fresh in the postseason. So, he regularly mixed up the lineups throughout the second half of the season. Now, the Dodgers are well rested from top to bottom. And, more importantly, they're playing as a team united toward a singular goal - winning.
While many were surprised to see the Dodgers sweep the Cubs, it shouldn't have surprise us to much. Make sure your CEO is like Joe Torre. One man can - and often does - make the difference between failing and winning.
- John
Below is what I wrote in September 21, 2007 --
Bleeding Dodger Blue
After a four-game sweep of the Dodgers by the Rockies, my beloved L.A. Dodgers are 6.5 games out of the wildcard race with just nine games to play. In other words, put a fork in it - this season is over. I am in mini shock that we could be out of the race for the playoffs this soon. Just a month ago, it looked like the Dodgers were going to battle with the Diamondbacks and Padres down to the wire. Now, usually quiet Jeff Kent is sounding off and complaining, Furcal is still hobbling, Nomar is tweaking with his swing mechanics (for the millionth time), and the young upstarts are tired physically and fed up mentally.
It's not a surprise that the team is starting to turn on itself. Tough times almost always get people to behave like morons and wilt under pressure in business ... and, in sports, it's no different. I blame the "neither here nor there" lack of commitment by Grady Little as the cause of this stretch run debacle. Looking at the team (as well as its random day-to-day lineup changes), you wonder if the Dodgers are a veteran team or youth-oriented team. The reality is that it's a team that is divided right down the middle. On the one hand, we have Nomar, Furcal, Kent, Lowe, Gonzalez, and Martinez. On the other hand, we have Loney, Martin, Ethier, Kemp, LaRoche, and gang. Juan Pierre falls somewhere in the middle - he's the DMZ guy with this being his seventh season.
Typically, you want to avoid having this sort of makeup in your team. Why? Because the interests of the veterans turn toward themselves when there are so many young guns on the team. It's a fight for jobs and competition turns inward - not outward at the true enemies (the OTHER teams!). When you have a couple rookies or young prospects, the veterans embrace them and even try to help them grow. When you have just as many "proved nothing so far" young ones as there are veterans, they're looked at as a threat. Veterans start competing with the young guns. They get nasty. They get frustrated. This is exactly what has happened in the Dodgers clubhouse. By the way, the reverse is also true. If your team is dominated by young guns (e.g. Cavaliers in the NBA are perfect examples), the handful of veterans know that part of what's expected out of them is to share their wisdom and help these up-and-comers grow up faster. They play a role. The Dodgers, however, are neither here nor there this year.
To make matters worse, and as Kent pointed out, manager Little has clearly proven that he has no strategy for how the Dodgers approached the season much less the stretch run. A tried-and-true approach throughout baseball history has been to use young players sparingly throughout the regular season to give the veterans some timeoff while getting some experience under the belts of the rookies so that both the regular season and stretch runs are optimal. Little has totally ignored any kind of rhyme or reason and (apparently) used a random roll of the dice to jigger the lineup any which way but rationally. It is very frustrating ...."
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