Why Baseball Managers Are Not Called Coaches? The 2 Reasons Behind It!!

If you are a sports fan and regularly follow Basketball, soccer, or even tennis, you must have noticed that every team has a coach. A coach is a person who guides a player or a team throughout his entire performance in a game. However, if you have been following baseball for quite some time now, you must have noticed that the heads of the team are baseball managers and are not called coaches.

If this has caught your attention, the question might have popped into your head, “why baseball managers are not called coaches?” this is not a vague question, but rather quite an intelligent one. One of the reasons baseball managers are not called coaches is that a manager handles everything regarding a team. In contrast, a coach is responsible solely for the benefit of the players.

The various reasons why baseball managers are not called coaches

One of the arguments behind baseball managers not being mentioned as coaches dates back to the mid-19th century when the first baseball clubs were established. The Professional Baseball “clubs'” just as the name suggests, started as a Gentlemen’s club. As it further evolved, a player was assigned the duty to choose who would play and when. Most of the time, these players were managed. The team also played along with their teammates, so it was just an extra duty that he exercised. After a while, these players gradually stopped taking part in the game and remained involved in all the additional responsibilities for the team.

Another argument said when baseball was invented, it was done by the adults. Since everyone was mature, they believed that they would not require any formal coach. There was no requirement for an “overarching authority” to pay them or experts to guide them. Nonetheless, they felt the need for a person who would be in charge of the team managing everything from travels to paying cheques to finances, and thus, they called him the manager.

Why do Baseball managers have the most challenging job among all other coaches of different Sports?

When you are watching a baseball match like MLB on TV or even sitting in the live audience, It might seem like baseball managers or not called coaches because they haven’t got much to do. But you dive into the game’s depths. You will realize that baseball managers have the most challenging jobs. Share the various reasons why baseball managers are called coaches as per their regulations in the game.

The Limited strategic influence

The basic strategy of baseball is pretty simple. It just follows two rules. First, score as many points as possible since this game is not time-bound. Second, Don’t Let The Other team score points. 

The second thing is easy to do than the first one. The manager needs to pick the best pitcher from his team and then constantly set up the defense as the game proceeds. The manager also decides whether the player should be playing left or right. The strategy managers decide which pitcher to call for at a certain point in the game.

But when the case involves the batter and the defensive team is pitching, then how the game proceeds are not really in the hands of the manager. In this situation, the game is more or less in the hands of the batter.

They are not just managing the game but even the players.

One of the significant reasons baseball managers are not called coaches is not just managing the game but managing the entire team along with the personality of every single player. It is challenging for baseball managers to keep 25 players constantly in line throughout a 162-game season. 

It might seem that it’s not a difficult job to keep up with the 25 players constantly for 162 games. But when you have to manage them, make them work out, play practice matches, and do everything together for 180 days, then, although uncalled for, too much familiarity breeds contempt.

The manager’s job is to keep harmony and peace among the players and ensure that they can give their level best during the games. All this requires hard work from the manager so that the players can live with each other and with the manager himself. The manager needs to know how to deal with different personality types. Since every player is unique, their way of expression would be other before and after a game. So for a 25-member team, a manager gets to deal with 25 different personalities.

The team manager’s duties in various Sports

In football, the games are strategically organized even before it begins. The head coach manages a minimal change that is required.

In Basketball, since there are no squads, the lineup required at the beginning of the game is Adjusted by the head coach himself.

In hockey, even the coaches have timeouts, but the difference between Basketball and football is that they are not used very strategically.

Unlike other sports, the game is not bound by any time limit in baseball. The baseball managers are called coaches who decide who will be playing in the game, and for how long. since each match lasts for nine innings, it is crucial to determine very strategically so that none of the players are burnt out.

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