Gregg Easterbrook, who used to write for ESPN until their purge of people critical of the NFL, now writes about football for the New York Times. One of his constant complaints is about coaches punting on 4th down, especially when it's 4th and short, and definitely when they are on the opposition's side of the field. It is Easterbrook's contention, and he has the stats to back it up, that possession of the ball is a much more significant to winning the game then is trying to win "field position." In addition, he says that by going for it, by being more aggressive, that coaches signal to their players that they want to win and trust and believe in the players to get the job done.
But, he argues, if coaches go for it and the attempt fails, the coaches are much more likely to be questioned and take the blame. Whereas, since punting on 4th down is conventional wisdom, if they punt and the defense can't stop the other team, then it's the players fault. It's a type of blame shifting that is bought into by the media, and because of them, by the fans as well.
Which leads me to pitching, and in particular the pitching of the New York Yankees. There is a much lamented refrain in the media this year that the Yankees' bullpen is tired because their starting pitching is not giving them enough length, and so the bullpen pitchers are having to throw too many pitches. This places all the blame on the pitchers, even ultimately on the bullpen pitchers because "they have to make their pitches" and if they don't it's certainly not the manager's fault.
The problem with this analysis is that it totally dismisses the manager's role in leaving pitchers in or taking them out. Girardi seems to have the belief that if a pitcher even comes close to throwing 100 pitches that he has to be pulled out of the game. There are lots of times when he has yanked a starting pitcher who is cruising for seemingly no other reason other than he is approaching 100 pitches. Then when the bullpen blows the game, it's not Girardi's fault, it's the bullpen because they are tired from having starting pitching not going deep into games.
Similarly, a bullpen pitcher will be doing great when they are yanked and someone else brought in because "conventional wisdom" is to make the move. I have never figured out why starting pitchers can face both lefties and righties, but bullpen pitchers can only seem to be able to pitch to one of the other. Unless, of course, they have a specific role such as "set-up man" or "closer" and then can see both batters, but can never be used in any situation other than what their role is. You absolutely cannot bring in the closer, you're 9th inning guy, in the 8th to face the heart of the order of the other team, because that's not their "role."
That of course is also blame shifting. It's not the manager's fault if the pitcher messes up, that's all on the pitcher, even if they never should have been there in the first place. It also signals to his pitchers whether he believes in them or not, and you cannot learn how to pitch out of a jam unless your manager allows you to try it.
The one exception to this rule this year is Matt Williams, the soon to be ex-manager of the Washington Nationals, who is blamed for not bringing in pitchers out of their designated roles. But Williams is definitely the exception to the rule in this case, otherwise the mantra in sports, and the actions of managers and coaches, is to make the decisions so that the blame goes to the players rather than to the person making the decision, because they did what "everyone else does."
Showing posts with label blame shifting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blame shifting. Show all posts
Friday, October 2, 2015
Wednesday, September 16, 2015
Who Are We Going To Blame?
This past weekend I was at a retreat, and during some free time there was horseback riding offered, which my family and I decided to do. As we headed out, there was a wrangler at the head of the line, and then there was one person between her and me in the third spot. As we were riding, the person in front of me was very concerned with her horse getting too close the wrangler's horse and kept pulling back on her reigns rather unnecessarily. Rather than letting her horse do what he wanted to do as a trained trail horse, she wanted to keep a tight reign on him.
As we kept going and started climbing up a hill, the wrangler's horse either got spooked, or just acted up, and turned and jumped. This caused the person in front of me, who was already too tight, to start pulling back on her horse to try and get away, but then rather than stopping, she kept pulling back on the reigns, and pulling back, and pulling back.
If you are familiar with horses, you know that pulling back forces them to go backward, and so the more she pulled, the more the horse went backward and the faster he started going. Even though the other wrangler who was riding next to us was yelling at her to stop and let go of the reigns, she didn't stop. This then caused the horse to get into a position he couldn't sustain and to fall over backwards, which then threw her out of the saddle, and fortunately to be able to get out of the way as the horse then rolled over the same way she had fallen. She was a little dirty and sore, but escaped what could have been a series accident.
As this was happening, I quickly pulled back and to the right on my horse to get him out of the way, but then let up and he settled down and we stopped and stood where we were. This is not to praise the way I handled it, because if I had been where she was perhaps things would have gone differently, and I would have reacted differently. It's always really easy to say "If I would have been there, I would have done X" because you don't know. I did trust my horse to do what it needed to do once we were clear of the immediate danger.
But, it's what happened afterwards that is the point of this story, because rather than taking any blame on herself for pulling back on the reigns forcing the horse into the situation she got into, instead she blamed the horse. It was the horse that acted up, it was the horse that bolted, and she said she's had horses act up before but she doesn't put up with it (she told a story of a horse biting her to which she slapped it on the head and it never did it again).
After the next group to ride came back, everyone else wanted to know who rode that horse and if they had any problems. Of course they didn't because what happened was first of all a fluke, and secondly it was never the horse's fault. The horse did what the rider was telling him to do, and never should have been blamed in the first place. But isn't that our nature?
Rather than taking responsibility, we look for who else might be responsible, who else can we blame. And I am just as guilty of this as anyone else. After my first year in my current church, I said that I could no longer lay responsibility for things at the feet of the former pastor because now it was getting to be all my responsibility. There are still lots of things I want to blame others for, but the truth is I am just as culpable now.
But even worse, the blame game not only shifts responsibility, it also shifts, or stops, the ability to try and do something different or to learn from our mistakes. Until we learn to admit our mistakes, and not blame others, then we can never learn from what we did wrong, and use that to make us better at whatever it is that we want to do.
As we kept going and started climbing up a hill, the wrangler's horse either got spooked, or just acted up, and turned and jumped. This caused the person in front of me, who was already too tight, to start pulling back on her horse to try and get away, but then rather than stopping, she kept pulling back on the reigns, and pulling back, and pulling back.
If you are familiar with horses, you know that pulling back forces them to go backward, and so the more she pulled, the more the horse went backward and the faster he started going. Even though the other wrangler who was riding next to us was yelling at her to stop and let go of the reigns, she didn't stop. This then caused the horse to get into a position he couldn't sustain and to fall over backwards, which then threw her out of the saddle, and fortunately to be able to get out of the way as the horse then rolled over the same way she had fallen. She was a little dirty and sore, but escaped what could have been a series accident.
As this was happening, I quickly pulled back and to the right on my horse to get him out of the way, but then let up and he settled down and we stopped and stood where we were. This is not to praise the way I handled it, because if I had been where she was perhaps things would have gone differently, and I would have reacted differently. It's always really easy to say "If I would have been there, I would have done X" because you don't know. I did trust my horse to do what it needed to do once we were clear of the immediate danger.
But, it's what happened afterwards that is the point of this story, because rather than taking any blame on herself for pulling back on the reigns forcing the horse into the situation she got into, instead she blamed the horse. It was the horse that acted up, it was the horse that bolted, and she said she's had horses act up before but she doesn't put up with it (she told a story of a horse biting her to which she slapped it on the head and it never did it again).
After the next group to ride came back, everyone else wanted to know who rode that horse and if they had any problems. Of course they didn't because what happened was first of all a fluke, and secondly it was never the horse's fault. The horse did what the rider was telling him to do, and never should have been blamed in the first place. But isn't that our nature?
Rather than taking responsibility, we look for who else might be responsible, who else can we blame. And I am just as guilty of this as anyone else. After my first year in my current church, I said that I could no longer lay responsibility for things at the feet of the former pastor because now it was getting to be all my responsibility. There are still lots of things I want to blame others for, but the truth is I am just as culpable now.
But even worse, the blame game not only shifts responsibility, it also shifts, or stops, the ability to try and do something different or to learn from our mistakes. Until we learn to admit our mistakes, and not blame others, then we can never learn from what we did wrong, and use that to make us better at whatever it is that we want to do.
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