Posted by Dan Novick
Read the quote below, and think about how strange this sounds if applied to a sport like baseball:
“I have seen skaters forget to change lanes, but I have never seen a coach forget to tell a skater to change,” said Dan Jansen, who won the 1,000-meters gold medal for the United States at Lillehammer in 1994. “I really like [Netherlands Speed Skating coach] Gerard Kemkers, but unfortunately I think this was his mistake.”
Put into baseball terms, that reads something like, "I have seen players make mistakes on the basepaths, but I have never seen a coach make a mistake." There are of course many different versions of that same analogy. But can you even imagine that sentence being spoken on an MLB postgame show?
Updates: Forgot to include the link. And Geoff Young had probably a better analogy than I did in the comments.
Dan Novick is a lifelong Yankees fan, and still gets the chills every time Enter Sandman plays from the Yankee Stadium speakers. He welcomes comments and questions via e-mail.
Comments
Jpd said...
I think that its more like a manager forgetting to put the correct number of DHs in the line up (Tampa Bay). it slmost never happens, and it should never happen. its such a basic thing that it just shouldn’t be forgotten, and the guy should be blasted for it.
Posted 02/24 at 02:32 AM
Geoff Young said...
The quote would read more like this: “I have seen players make mistakes on the basepaths, but I have never seen a coach make a mistake that single-handedly cost his team the World Series.” You might also have to add something about never again getting a shot at the World Series.
Posted 02/24 at 12:14 PM
Wade said...
Well said Geoff.
The finality of the error and the world-wide size and scope of the stage are indicative of a naueatingly tragic error, far more than a baserunning blunder. He had that gold medal tied up, and was making the correct lane transition, when the coach YELLED for him to change at the last instant.
With speedskating being as popular as it is in The Netherlands, that coach should be put on suicide watch. That…was…bad.
Posted 02/24 at 02:37 PM
Steve Treder said...
Absolutely right. In its combination of circumstances, this was among the handful of most egregious and stunning blunders in sports history. Very, very, very bad.
Posted 02/25 at 03:52 PM
Hemmo Bosscher said...
I am from Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Still currently living there. I must say I am pleasantly surprised that you Americans noticed what happened at what must be a very un-interesting sporting event for you to watch(Honestly if I was not raised on watching speed skating I would loathe it).
Thanks for the compassion and shared outrage, as a Dutchman I hope Kempers is in the least fired from Kramer’s staff.
As for a resembling baseball situation: 7th game of the World Series, 9th inning, behind 4-5. 2 outs, and the coach makes the runner at 3rd steal home. Forcefully. While the pitcher is holding the ball. Of course, this could never happen. Essentially though, no one thought the Kramer situation would ever happen like that, the coach personally screwed it up without the athlete having anything to do about it himself.
I think that its more like a manager forgetting to put the correct number of DHs in the line up (Tampa Bay). it slmost never happens, and it should never happen. its such a basic thing that it just shouldn’t be forgotten, and the guy should be blasted for it.