Generalists Managing

I was at the Marlins-Phillies game last night, although I would call it the Phillies-Marlins game, but because it was in Miami, I guess I have to say it that way. Midway through the game, another Phils fan and I realized that we were sitting right next to Ed Wade, the general manager of the Phillies. I watched him while things were going on, and all he did was watch the game. This bothered me and it begs a question that I can't seem to get past. As a fan of the team whose staffing future he holds in the palm of his hands, should I expect him to have a computer with him? Or at least an assistant that has a computer with them?

I'm expected to utilize a computer. As a tool to help me do my job, it is invaluable, but not as invaluable as it is to someone who might need mounds of stats at his fingertips. Or not as invaluable as it might be to someone who needs to record his thoughts real-time. So much happens during every moment of every game. Sure, he can watch film later and discuss things with his coach's at that time, but there's nothing like the experience of the game while it's happening. That's why his team's fans are buying tickets anyway. And with so many games during the long season, do they really watch the game afterwards?

I know. I'm reaching. I understand that there's people out there that do that kind of thing for him. Or do they? My feeling is that every GM needs every edge they can get. His coaches certainly aren't tapping notes into a PDA while they're spitting sunflower seeds all over the floor of the dugout during every single mind-numbing game. And to be honest with you, not only should coaches come to the game with all the research already done, I don't think I want to see that kind of technology make it to the bench area anyway. The GM, however, should be expected to do whatever he can with whatever is available to him.

A GM having a computer with him during the game isn't illegal is it? Maybe it is. How would baseball enforce that? I think the more likely scenario is that Ed Wade is just too old school to make such changes. But mark my words, in a time where you can't even get into most worthy college classrooms without toting a school required laptop, don't be surprised when GM's with machines is the norm rather than the exception. Or at the very least more GM assistants with laptops; but they have to be baseball people, not just statisticians. I personally think that there should be a coaching position held by an honest to goodness coach whose sole responsibility is to record what he sees and what is said and what's going on in comparison to the stat of choice. Not to change the course of the game being played, but simply to help keep things in mind for the next night's game. Wouldn't that be a cool job?

Hey, Ed. You hiring?

Blackberry bliss

When I was about 16 or 17, I had a Mac Plus. Great machine for it's day. Who knew that booting up the machine by flipping 4 floppies back and forth for about 20 minutes was a bad thing? Anyway, at some point I ended up connecting a modem to that bad boy and found my way to one of the original Prodigy sites. If I remember correctly, it was the only place I could go. It had horrible graphics, no content and it was clunky and slow and boring, plus I had to pay for the time. "Stupid", I distinctly remember thinking. Little did I know there were kids my age looking at that in pure excitement of the possibilities and dreaming of one day owning mutiple homes in exotic places. I went back to watching prime-time episodes of Cheers.

Fast forward to yesterday and I'm sitting at my desk playing with my brand spankin' new Blackberry 7510. In great anticipation I immediately found my way to the Online area where I could finally experience browsing from the palm of my hand. "Stupid", I distictly remember thinking. I went back to blogging. Hey, at least I'm doing something a little more constructive this time even if I do only have one reader.... "Hi, Dad".

There's been a whole lot of talk about "price gouging" in Florida these days thanks to this friggin' hurricane season. At least once a night on the local news, the notorious term finds its way into some kind of story relating to one or all of the past 3 hurricanes that came churning toward this vulnerable tropical oasis that I now call home. What I find interesting about all of this is the incredible amount of professional backing that price gouging gets as a fundamental and necessary economic process rather than a way for evil merchants to take people for more money. According to the general public, price gouging is a bad thing. The name of the term alone even assumes a certain amount of uncomfortable penetration. And since the media is for the most part on the citizen's side, they're going to portray price gouging as nothing but a naughty thing to do to people.

But do a search on price gouging on your search engine of choice. It turns out that economists and other professionals debate price gouging incessantly. Apparently, price gouging can be a good thing. It's all about market driven supply and demand balance type stuff. In a very small, not giving the subject due dilligence, nutshell, the price gouging advocates expect the economy to force its own prices based on the availability of goods and the competition of other vendors. Coupled with that, goods remain available longer because people will make decisions based on higher prices rather than doing something silly like buying out one store's ice supply because its affordable. Although I don't want to go into it too far since I'm no financial guru, I have to ask a couple of questions:

1. Do we really want to wait for the economy to stabilize immediatly after a natural disaster?
2. Do we really trust Hector at the local convienience store to come up with a fair price in times of trouble forcing me to drive around town during a gas shortage to find the most economically stable and competitive price?
3. Have the price gouging advocates been in an area where natural disasters occur to see how ridiculous people tend to act during such times?
4. Isn't there enough legal price gouging in America already?.... Try shopping for a Halloween costume between now and Oct. 31st.

Like I said, I really have no leg to stand on when it comes to professional opinions reguarding this subject. There are plenty more people out there who are qualified to argue this subject on paper. I'm simply... and unfortunately.... just a customer.