"Momentum? Momentum is the next day's starting pitcher"
About this Quote
“Momentum” is sports’ favorite bedtime story: a warm narrative that helps fans and broadcasters make sense of randomness. Earl Weaver, the Orioles’ famously acid-tongued manager, punctures it with one blunt substitution: tomorrow’s starting pitcher. Not vibes, not willpower, not the collective chest-thump of a dugout. The guy with the ball.
The line works because it drags baseball back to its least romantic truth: the sport is structured to resist mythmaking. Every day is a reset button, and the most consequential variable often isn’t emotional carryover but a rotation schedule, an arm angle, a fatigue level, the way a slider behaves in humid air. Weaver isn’t denying that confidence exists; he’s demoting it. He’s saying the “hot hand” story is usually a way to avoid admitting how much of the game is matchups, probabilities, and bodies that break.
There’s also a managerial flex embedded here. Weaver came up in an era when front offices were less numerate in public, yet he managed like an early pragmatist: play the percentages, trust power, exploit platoons. His jab at momentum is really a jab at lazy analysis. If you want to predict what happens next, look at who’s starting, who’s available in the bullpen, who’s hurt, who’s due for regression.
It’s a coach’s worldview: control what’s controllable, ignore the noise, and let everyone else romance the streak.
The line works because it drags baseball back to its least romantic truth: the sport is structured to resist mythmaking. Every day is a reset button, and the most consequential variable often isn’t emotional carryover but a rotation schedule, an arm angle, a fatigue level, the way a slider behaves in humid air. Weaver isn’t denying that confidence exists; he’s demoting it. He’s saying the “hot hand” story is usually a way to avoid admitting how much of the game is matchups, probabilities, and bodies that break.
There’s also a managerial flex embedded here. Weaver came up in an era when front offices were less numerate in public, yet he managed like an early pragmatist: play the percentages, trust power, exploit platoons. His jab at momentum is really a jab at lazy analysis. If you want to predict what happens next, look at who’s starting, who’s available in the bullpen, who’s hurt, who’s due for regression.
It’s a coach’s worldview: control what’s controllable, ignore the noise, and let everyone else romance the streak.
Quote Details
| Topic | Coaching |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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