The Cincinnati Reds have now made a playoff appearance in back-to-back seasons and have been consistently relevant in the world of baseball for the first time in almost twenty years. Dusty Baker joined the organization as the General Manager in 2007 and quickly turned the decimated Reds team around in order to make them a threat in the National League again. This past weekend, he brought the Reds to a single-elimination wild-card playoff game in which they had a chance to get to the NLDS.
The Reds unfortunately lost to the Pirates in the game, but this sounds like a promising scenario for the future, right? Well apparently the Reds organization didn’t seem to think so! Just 3 days after the playoff loss and multiple successful season, the Reds parted ways with Dusty Baker, dismissing him after three 90-win seasons, and two straight playoff appearances.
The Reds had a bad last week of the season, losing six straight, including the playoff loss to the Pirates, but is that all that is needed to fire a coach now? This seems to be a new trend happening in sports, which is leaving teams in flux due to a constant changing of the guard.
Former Auburn Tigers head coach, Gene Chizik, led the Tigers to a National Championship in 2011, but was then fired after the 2012 season where the Tigers went 3-9.
This emerging trend begs the question, are teams now expecting too much too fast from their head coaches? Improving and developing a team takes time; it doesn’t happen overnight. Do you think many of the coaches we consider to be the best of all time started out with immediate success? Of course not.
Legendary Dallas Cowboys coach, Tom Landry, led the Cowboys to a stellar 16-46-4 record in his first 5 seasons as head coach before winning 2 Super Bowls with the team. Former Yankees Manager, Joe Torre, began his career in New York with the nickname, “Clueless Joe.” After a couple of years with the team, he finally delivered some success, which quickly became 4 World Series titles.
This new trend of immediate gratification is a big departure from the traditional ways of sports, and seems to prevent any sort of connection or development. So is this new trend good for sports? You decide.