Thinking has been replaced by analytics

[Yankee4Life]

I have an online photo album of baseball that I have been working on for years and I must have at least two thousand pictures in it by now. I am always looking around for more interesting photos to add to it and I use a lot of different search tools to find the ones I want. I am amazed at the variety of results I can get going from Google to Yahoo to DuckDuckGo to the not so well known ones such as Swisscows, Searx and Mojeez.

 

Anyway, I am not writing this about grabbing photos. It’s about the story behind one photo that I found yesterday that had Billy Martin turning a double play in a July game against the Orioles in 1956. What first stirred my interest in this particular photo was a sign behind Martin that I am guessing had to be from some airline that advertised trips to Florida and Cuba. 

 

That’s nice I said but again this is not why I am writing this. It was the story of how the Yankees won this game that amazed me.

 

The date of this game was Tuesday, July 3, 1956 so naturally I made a beeline to Retrosheet and I looked up the hows and whys of this game. I found out that the game went twelve innings but how the Yankees won it made me say to myself that it would never happen in today’s game and especially with the modern day Yankees who are so afraid of making a move that may go against their precious analytics.

 

This is what happened. Casey Stengel was the manager. With one out and runners on first and third he sent up pitcher Tommy Byrne to hit for pitcher Tom Sturdivant. Byrne hit .269 in 1956 so I can follow Stengel’s reasoning here. The Orioles intentionally walked Byrne to load the bases. Gil McDougald was the next hitter - but hold on! Stengel called McDougald back and sent up Mickey McDermott to hit for him. If any of you have the Total Classics series, especially TC 1951 or 1955 for example you will say to yourself “wasn’t McDermott a pitcher?” Yes he was. Stengel sent up a pitcher, who by the way hit only .212 in 1956 to hit for Gil McDougald, who, if you take a glance at the boxscore, was 2 for 5 in the game. Not too shabby. McDermott proceeded to single to right field and the winning run scored. 

 

Stengel was known as "the Ol' Perfessor" and I suppose this was just another example of him outsmarting everyone else. He had me shaking my head because I have no idea why this happened. 

 

Consider:

 

• If McDermott made an out or got into a double play the Yanks would have had to go on to the 13th without a shortstop. The aging Phil Rizzuto was still on the bench but he was almost on his way out. In fact he was released the next month.
•  
• What made Stengel do this? What did he see? What was wrong with McDougald at that point?
•  
• Was his bench beat up at the time where he had no choice but to use two pitchers as pinch hitters?
•  
• Also, if they went on to the 13th Stengel would have lost two pitchers to put in the game.

 

Ok, ok, Y4L. What’s your point? You will tell me that this game was sixty-nine years ago! Baseball was different then Y4L! You don’t have to tell me that. My point is this. Stengel managed by instinct. Whatever that instinct was it won the game for him. Aaron Boone doesn’t know the meaning of instinct. 

 

Baseball is a game of copycats. If someone comes up with something you can bet before long everyone else will do it like when Tony Larussa and pitching coach Dave Duncan began the strict pitch count thing. Now it is widely accepted. Or when Tampa Bay came up with that “opener” move that they used when they did not have anyone to start a game for them. Now they all do it. I’m waiting for the next move where the pitch count is not widely accepted anymore and maybe just maybe pitchers injuries will begin to decrease.

 

There is room for some analytics but not when it takes over a game and managers are forced to always follow it.

 

By the way, here is the picture that caused all this trouble.

 

 

 

[sabugo]

Short answer is: With analytics you don't have to think. The thinking has been done for you beforehand. That's a big problem with the world going forward. People rely on automation way too much and 'unlearn' a lot of basic human skills and how to complete basic tasks. 

With baseball, and specifically the Yankees they went way overboard with analytics. And they're not course correcting.