"My feeling is that when you're managing a baseball team, you have to pick the right people to play and then pray a lot"
About this Quote
Baseball management gets romanticized as chess with sunflower seeds, but Robin Roberts cuts it down to its real proportions: part judgment, part surrender. The line lands because it refuses the fantasy that leadership is pure control. You can scout talent, set lineups, read matchups, and still watch a bloop single turn into a losing streak. “Pick the right people” flatters the manager’s craft without inflating it; “pray a lot” is the punch of humility, acknowledging the sport’s built-in chaos.
The intent feels less like piety than a wry coping mechanism. Prayer here is shorthand for the uncontrollable variables that dominate a long season: injuries, bad hops, slumps that defy mechanics, umpires, weather, the random cruelty of a ball hit two inches off the sweet spot. Roberts, a Hall of Fame pitcher from an era when players logged heavy innings and teams ran on gritted teeth, knew how thin the margin is between a masterpiece and a “tough luck” loss. That experience gives the joke its authority.
Subtextually, it’s also a quiet defense of managers. Fans want a scapegoat when outcomes swing, but Roberts suggests the job is mostly hiring and hoping, not micromanaging destiny. The quote works because it tells a truth modern analytics still bump into: you can raise your odds, not abolish variance. In a game built on failure and repetition, a little prayer is just another way of admitting you’re human.
The intent feels less like piety than a wry coping mechanism. Prayer here is shorthand for the uncontrollable variables that dominate a long season: injuries, bad hops, slumps that defy mechanics, umpires, weather, the random cruelty of a ball hit two inches off the sweet spot. Roberts, a Hall of Fame pitcher from an era when players logged heavy innings and teams ran on gritted teeth, knew how thin the margin is between a masterpiece and a “tough luck” loss. That experience gives the joke its authority.
Subtextually, it’s also a quiet defense of managers. Fans want a scapegoat when outcomes swing, but Roberts suggests the job is mostly hiring and hoping, not micromanaging destiny. The quote works because it tells a truth modern analytics still bump into: you can raise your odds, not abolish variance. In a game built on failure and repetition, a little prayer is just another way of admitting you’re human.
Quote Details
| Topic | Team Building |
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