04/26/24
April 01, 2004
Coach Fitz's Management Theory: (Subscription but well worth it) Michael Lewis writes a great piece in the NY Times about his New Orleans high school baseball/basketball coach. Some quotes from how alumni (even Peyton Manning) view him, and his current treatment by the parents of the kids he coaches. My apologies if this has been posted already, but I wanted to make sure it got on here.
Read this the other day too. Kids are such pansies these days! I was really surprised to read Michael Lewis was any kind of athlete. Good link.
posted by vito90 at 12:11 PM on April 01, 2004
Overall, I liked the article, with these reservations... 1) The "Save My Coach, I Loved My Coach, Why Don't You Love My Coach" subtext was a bit much. Lewis thinks the kids are punks for the same reasons why frat brothers always think the new pledges are getting off easy. 2) For all the talk about pampering, coaching and teaching at Isidore Newman doesn't strike me as the School of Hard Knocks, as 95 percent of the non-private school teachers and coaches in New Orleans can probably attest. I'm sure there are plenty of places where Fitz's lessons might be valued, they just wouldn't be as cushy.
posted by jackhererra at 02:38 PM on April 01, 2004
I've always preferred the hard-nosed coaches to the hand-holders. I still do. My master's swim team coach tells us we're all a bunch of no-good losers every morning, and in an odd way it makes us laugh and feel great. I've seen him work with kids, too - he does the same thing and they eat it up even more than we do.
posted by dusted at 01:21 PM on April 02, 2004
I found this article yesterday while doing my rounds of the baseball blogs and printed it out to read on the ride home from work. It is a little long to read on monitor, but it is well worth it! Heck, I even dreampt that I was on a little league team last night because of this.