A Vote of Confidence

Last night, the Phillies were struggling to score runs.  I'm afraid this will be a common refrain in 2012.  An interesting thing happened however.  In the 10th inning, with two men on and two outs, Manager Charlie Manuel allowed rookie second baseman Freddy Galvis to bat.  Galvis is hitless for the season and doesn't look like that streak will end soon.  He allowed him to hit even though there were big left-handed bats on the bench.  Unfortunately, he struck out and the Pirates won the game in the bottom half of the inning.

At first I scratched my head. On second thought, it was a stroke of genius.  Charlie Manuel is a very underrated manager.  I think what Charlie stated with his actions is Young man, this is your job.  Don't worry about looking over your shoulder.  Give it your best shot.  Charlie knows it's a long season and this vote of confidence may help in the development of a struggling rookie.  The move may pay dividends in September.

It's easy for us to do it ourselves and not let the new person have a chance.  Sometimes you have to fail to ultimately succeed.  Charlie Manuel knows this-but many of us don't.  It's hard to watch someone fail.  It's harder to know that they might but let them try anyway.  We get better through experience and repetition.  We learn by being put into difficult situations.  Baseball is no different than life.  Think about it the next time to give out an assignment or fail to delegate.  After all, it's better to try and fail than to never try at all.