First of all, I would like to thank my friend, Adam J. Schoenfeld, for filling in for Jordan Rose this week, as he is at an away rugby game.
Adam is a worthy opponent because he is both a state-champion debater and an avid Dartmouth sports fan. In any case, I have put together a few "quick hit" thoughts of the weekend before getting started on today's column.
Let's be honest, I think the best weekend (weather-wise) every single spring is Dimensions weekend. The rain came just after a lot of the prospective students left on Saturday. God hates us.
Congrats to both the men's and women's track teams, who stole the show at this weekend's Dartmouth Invitational.
Thanks to all those who made the three-mile trek (or car ride) down to the race course to watch the Bill Cup on Saturday. Extra thanks to those parents that brought food to the boathouse afterwards.
If Jordan, Adam and I are most similar to an NBA basketball trio, I would have to relate us to the Lakers of the mid-80s with me being Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Adam being Magic Johnson and Jordan being Kurt Rambis.
Alright, now onto the question at hand: Should there be pressure on Dartmouth baseball coach Bob Whalen to win an Ivy League championship this season?
First of all, let's look at the facts. Bob Whalen has been Dartmouth's baseball coach for almost two decades without bringing home an Ivy League championship.
In this period of time, every Ivy League team except for Dartmouth and Cornell has brought home the hardware at least once. There have also been internal problems with the baseball team as recently as 2007, when a good portion of the team (including the captain) quit the program.
However, Whalen should not be feeling the warmth of the hot seat burning any hotter this season.
Whalen has amassed over 200 Ivy League wins in his time at the College, is less than 35 total wins away from becoming Dartmouth's all-time winningest manager, and has taken multiple teams to the Ivy League baseball championship series. There are many examples of managers in baseball history who have enjoyed much success during the regular season, yet have been eluded by postseason greatness (see Red Sox manager Joe Cronin for my favorite example).
This is because, when it comes down to it, managing in the postseason is fundamentally different from managing regular-season games. We see it all the time in Major League Baseball -- the team that wins the World Series is not always the league's best team throughout the year. Since 1995, four teams have won the World Series without even winning their own division during the regular season (the Marlins in 1997 and 2003, the Angels in 2002 and the Red Sox in 2004). Especially in shorter series (like the three-game series that the Ivy League plays to decide a champion) the long-term statistics and probabilities that managers rely on throughout the regular season seem to be more subject to randomness.
Also, by publicly turning up the hot seat on Bob Whalen, we turn up the pressure on his players. Dartmouth baseball has been spectacular this year, charging out of the gates to a 12-2 record in the Ivy League (and winning this weekend in thrilling fashion). Let's not put undue pressure on the team by making it play for the future of its coach, and rather just enjoy watching Dartmouth crush its Ivy League competition.
Also, by putting more pressure on Whalen, we send the message to both him and his players that success in baseball is defined by winning an Ivy League championship.
While that would be a successful season, I agree, there are other ways in which this season can be a success for the Big Green that don't include bringing a trophy back to Hanover.
The bottom line of the argument, however, comes down to one's fundamental philosophy of Ivy League sports: Is success about wins and losses, or about providing leadership and mentoring to student-athletes who are the last true amateurs in sport? I say both.
A coach's job at any post-high-school-level is to both to win games and provide an example to his or her players. There is a reason why the University of Indiana fired the all-time winningest college basketball coach, Bob Knight. It's not all about the championships at the college level.
For two decades, Bob Whalen has been shaping the lives of Dartmouth student-athletes, and when it comes down to it, that is the most important thing. I say he should be allowed to continue without much weight being put on his teams' postseason play.
