On July 21st, 1970, San Diego’s Clay Kirby held the New York Mets hitless for eight innings but was lifted for a pinch hitter by manager Preston Gomez. With the Padres trailing 1-0 with two out in the eighth, Gomez elected to go for the win instead of letting Kirby finish the game. The Padres lost the no-hitter and the game, 3-0.

One of the things I find most irritating about sports is the amount of “credit” some coaches or managers get for their team’s success.

Let’s take Coach K for example. Each year he would get the pick of the best players coming out of high school. Sure Duke won. But the competition was rigged by definition.

That is the way I feel about Joe Torre when he managed the Yankees. So what! He had a team of great players and the biggest payroll in the sport. How many games did the Yankees actually win because of Torre? I don’t remember seeing him on base, or throwing any pitchers.

This off season the Cubs poached manager Craig Counsell from the rival Milwaukee Brewers. They paid Counsell to replace World Series icon David Ross an absurd amount of money to win more ballgames. So far, I haven’t seen Counsell hitting or pitching for the Cubbies this season. And I am guessing he won’t.

I know that my views on managers and coaches is greatly colored by my anti-authoritarian streak. It is a bias I happily acknowledge. Like many of my biases it is based on my fundamental belief that what most of the world admires is not worthy of admiration: wealth, status, material possessions, unearned advantages.

The best thing a coach or manager can do in most cases is probably just get out of the way.

On July 21st the Brewers have a record of 56-42. The Cubs are in last place, 10 games behind. Maybe managers don’t matter that much after all.