All in Good Time

 Clare called earlier in the week to ask how a 30-year old gets to be named GM of a major-league baseball team, in particular one David Stearns with the Milwaukee Brewers.  Perhaps I should add that Stearns has a poli-sci degree from Harvard and that he said at his introduction the Brewers intend to be “industry leaders and employ best practices across every function of  baseball operations.”  The sausage races could be in trouble from the sounds of it.     

A little perspective may be in order here.  Branch Rickey did not become a general manager until he was 43-years old.  Everything that followed—inventing the farm system, signing Jackie Robinson and Roberto Clemente among many other players, pioneering use of pitching machines and batting helmets, and, yes, strategy based on the use of statistics—date from then.  Right now, Stearns is what Casey Stengel once said Greg Goosen had a chance of becoming in another ten years, 30.  Let’s see if new school outperforms old school.