Is it important that Scott Servais has no managerial experience

The Seattle Mariners, as every baseball fan knows by now, hired Scott Servais as the Seattle Mariners new manager. The concern was that he had no managerial experience. It sounded scary to many. What, he has never done this before. My God, what will happen?

It seemed the hidden thought behind any one who mentioned it, and brought it up as a concern, was I wonder if he knows as much about baseball as I do. As we know the people who know the most about baseball are fans and media people. Why else would Tom Verducci criticize Terry Collins in the World Series about a pitching change? Sorry Tom, but I don’t care what you think. Can we have someone like John Smoltz in the booth who knows far more than Verducci and Harold Reynolds.

Obviously Tom knows what moves to make.  And why else would fans call sports talk radio and complain that their manger can’t run a bullpen, that the manager used the wrong pinch hitter, and on it goes. We all know better, right?

What fans and some in the media forget at times is that there is more to managing than going by the book pinch hitting a lefty against a righty, and all the so called obvious moves based on percentages. The thing with numbers is that they tell you what happened, not what will happen. In baseball games, odds are beaten in every game by somebody doing something where the odds indicate otherwise.

In-game moves by a manager have more to do with the obvious and in the end those moves are not the main reason he is in the dugout. A manager today must be a leader, must have the respect of his players, must be a good communicator, and must be firm in his resolve. When a superstar jogs halfheartedly to first on a grounder, bench him, don’t cater to his status. A leader leads, not letting players dictate the goings on.

Scott Servais has been in baseball as player all his life. I don’t care how he manages during a game (not yet anyway), but if he is a leader and the players respect him, that is what matters most.