A Stark Lesson in Management

If you are a baseball fan, you are no doubt aware of the different trajectories of the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves baseball teams. Unless something rarer than a black swan pops up in the next three weeks, the Braves will win the National League East Division and the Mets will end up in third or fourth out of five teams. Some who are unfamiliar with the game will assume that the Braves have better players than the Mets.  And while that may be marginally true, I believe the difference that amounts today to Atlanta having a 15-game lead over the Mets, is in the two teams' drastically different cultures and leadership.

The most stark example came on the 17th of August.  Ronald Acuna, a Braves player, who is clearly one of the best in Major League Baseball, hit a long fly ball that he stood and admired, assuming it was a home run that wouldn't require his full speed effort.  It turns out Acuna was wrong.  The ball hit the wall in center field and Acuna got nothing more than a single base hit for his effort. To make matters worse he was then thrown out trying to steal second.

It was an important game for the Braves who were playing their rival West Coast Division-leading Dodgers and losing 3-0 in the fourth inning at the time. Despite knowing that without Acuna in the game the Braves chances at winning were significantly reduced, when Acuna returned to the dugout, Brian Snitker the Braves Manager, summarily and publicly removed him from the game.

The Braves went on to win the game without Acuna.  Snitker stated very clearly in the post- game press conference that this type of behavior was not acceptable on his team.  He went on to say the name on the front (the Team) is a lot more important than the name on the back (player’s name) and that the Braves were trying to accomplish something that required each member of the team work hard to support the other 24 members. Message delivered.  Acuna got it too.  He responded with nothing but praise for his manager, endorsing his decision. Acuna will be a better player understanding the error that he made.

Contrast that with the Mets struggling to complete a mediocre season. Faced with a similar factual scenario, Mickey Callaway, the Met’s manager stated simply, he doesn’t bench players to send a message. This was his response to Robinson Cano, a player past his prime and having a less than mediocre season, not running out a ground ball that resulted in a double play. Cano’s response was a series of excuses about not realizing how many outs there were. In fact he repeated the same behavior again in a later game. Message delivered. Winning is not our objective.

The link between the Brave’s winning ways and the Met’s inept play is clear. Unless a manager in sports or in business, is willing to call out their best player and hold them accountable for meeting a clearly set standard, the team ends up as little more than collective of individual players looking out for themselves. There is no “I” in team.