The Penalty Box: The Best Laid Plans
October 4, 2022 at 10:14 p.m.
The Penalty Box: The Best Laid Plans
By Roger Grossman-
That can show up in many different forms, and the ways it can go wrong for them can show in almost as many ways.
I saw a football coach whose team had been marching up and down the field, almost at will, go for it on fourth down and one in a tie game and his team didn’t make it. Yes, if they had kicked a field goal, they would have had the lead with less than five minutes to play.
The other team went down and scored and won the game.
I saw baseball managers fighting for playoff spots and trying to improve their playoff positioning follow conventional wisdom by bringing in a left-handed pitcher to face a left-handed batter with runners on first and second with two outs in the 8th inning leading by one.
I have no doubt that the manager had made that move at least 50 times during the course of the previous 158 games of the season, and I am just as sure that it worked most of the time.
The hitter took a hanging curveball and drilled it into the right field corner. The tying and go-ahead runs scored.
Basketball coaches have it happen to them too.
The coach puts their best defender on the other team’s most dangerous offensive threat, and three minutes into the game that player picked up their second foul and had to sit out most of the rest of the first half.
It happens in soccer. What form should they put their team in to give their team the best chance of beating their heavily-favored opponent?
Those are the things that keep coaches up at night.
Coaches, no matter the level, are in an impossible position. Should they follow conventional wisdom and do what seems logical? Should they follow that voice inside their head that says “this time, you should change it up?”
Worse than that, the voice might say “follow the norm, because if you don’t, you’ll get crushed by the media and fans.”
And that, friends, is where the problem really lies.
See, to a large percentage of the fan base of any team in any league, the old funny phrase “we’re with you win or tie” applies. The variation of that phrase is that “any decision that works is a good one, and any decision that doesn’t work is bad.”
The reality is that sometimes a manager or coach can do the right thing for the right reason, and it might not work out. Could be the plan was poorly executed. Could be the opponent’s execution of what they wanted to do was better. Could be a lot of things.
But where things have gone sideways in sports is in the fact that things just don’t always go the way it looks like they should.
And what do we do with that? We blame someone for the failure.
It might be obvious. Maybe not so much.
Even worse, some fans just aren’t ever going to be satisfied no matter what.
Coaches who make right decisions might still get questioned even when their choices work out.
Again, in reality, once a coach calls a play, draws one up, sends the signal to their runners or whatever, there is absolutely nothing they can do about what happens next. They will be trusting that the training and practice they have put in will pay off in this moment.
That’s a pretty helpless feeling, right?
Can I give you some honest advice? When you are watching a game—any game—and the coach makes a call that doesn't work, don’t be so ignorant to think that you could do better.
Hint: you couldn’t. If you could, someone would have hired you to do it already.
But they didn’t. You’re watching like everyone else.
And while you are watching, think about the decisions that you make every day. Where to work. Where to go. Who to marry. Who to be friends with. What to wear. What to eat and drink. Whether or not to open the windows. Whether or not to work out.
Be glad that your friends and family aren’t posting about how they feel about your real-life decisions on social media and in chat rooms.
How miserable would that be?
That can show up in many different forms, and the ways it can go wrong for them can show in almost as many ways.
I saw a football coach whose team had been marching up and down the field, almost at will, go for it on fourth down and one in a tie game and his team didn’t make it. Yes, if they had kicked a field goal, they would have had the lead with less than five minutes to play.
The other team went down and scored and won the game.
I saw baseball managers fighting for playoff spots and trying to improve their playoff positioning follow conventional wisdom by bringing in a left-handed pitcher to face a left-handed batter with runners on first and second with two outs in the 8th inning leading by one.
I have no doubt that the manager had made that move at least 50 times during the course of the previous 158 games of the season, and I am just as sure that it worked most of the time.
The hitter took a hanging curveball and drilled it into the right field corner. The tying and go-ahead runs scored.
Basketball coaches have it happen to them too.
The coach puts their best defender on the other team’s most dangerous offensive threat, and three minutes into the game that player picked up their second foul and had to sit out most of the rest of the first half.
It happens in soccer. What form should they put their team in to give their team the best chance of beating their heavily-favored opponent?
Those are the things that keep coaches up at night.
Coaches, no matter the level, are in an impossible position. Should they follow conventional wisdom and do what seems logical? Should they follow that voice inside their head that says “this time, you should change it up?”
Worse than that, the voice might say “follow the norm, because if you don’t, you’ll get crushed by the media and fans.”
And that, friends, is where the problem really lies.
See, to a large percentage of the fan base of any team in any league, the old funny phrase “we’re with you win or tie” applies. The variation of that phrase is that “any decision that works is a good one, and any decision that doesn’t work is bad.”
The reality is that sometimes a manager or coach can do the right thing for the right reason, and it might not work out. Could be the plan was poorly executed. Could be the opponent’s execution of what they wanted to do was better. Could be a lot of things.
But where things have gone sideways in sports is in the fact that things just don’t always go the way it looks like they should.
And what do we do with that? We blame someone for the failure.
It might be obvious. Maybe not so much.
Even worse, some fans just aren’t ever going to be satisfied no matter what.
Coaches who make right decisions might still get questioned even when their choices work out.
Again, in reality, once a coach calls a play, draws one up, sends the signal to their runners or whatever, there is absolutely nothing they can do about what happens next. They will be trusting that the training and practice they have put in will pay off in this moment.
That’s a pretty helpless feeling, right?
Can I give you some honest advice? When you are watching a game—any game—and the coach makes a call that doesn't work, don’t be so ignorant to think that you could do better.
Hint: you couldn’t. If you could, someone would have hired you to do it already.
But they didn’t. You’re watching like everyone else.
And while you are watching, think about the decisions that you make every day. Where to work. Where to go. Who to marry. Who to be friends with. What to wear. What to eat and drink. Whether or not to open the windows. Whether or not to work out.
Be glad that your friends and family aren’t posting about how they feel about your real-life decisions on social media and in chat rooms.
How miserable would that be?
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