Just a Bump in the Road
(Navigating the road less traveled.)
For todays episode of Robins Roundup, I'll ride in the car with Robins Gm Alan Ehlers as he commutes from his childhood home in Keansburg NJ in route to Red Robin Park at Ebbets Field for the season finale series against the Charm City Jimmies. As expected, the journey was rather unique and unusual. While most BBA GM's tend to drive Mercedes' and Lexus', Ehlers drives a restored 1988 Sky Blue Chevy Camaro Z-28. It's a replica of his first car he ever owned. As we step into the car, he pulls out an old Garmin navigation system and plugs it into the cigarette lighter. This prompted my first question. For a guy who travels this same route 81 times a year for the past 9 years, why does he need a navigation system?
"Of course I know "the best route". But so does everyone else. Have you ever tried to commute from central NJ to NYC? It's not fun. Whoever told the famous joke of why do you park in a driveway and drive on a parkway obviously never rode the Garden State Parkway during a rush hour commute. It's insane. My father battled this war his whole life. He was a roofer in Staten Island. Worked for a company that was a front organization for mob activities.(true story) He told me that the fastest way from point A to point B was not necessarily the most direct route. Sometimes you have to take the road less traveled. I've kept that as my philosophy on life ever since."
The Robins GM then scrolled through the Garmin and showed me a list of close to 100 different sets of directions. Whichever route he took that day depended on a set of conditions. He took out his tablet and opened up an excel file that was a questionnaire of sorts. He answered a series of questions about the time of day, day of the week, time of the year. He checked the weather and traffic from the NJ 101.5 website. He then opened an ap to find construction updates. When all was said and done, he hit enter and the tablet told him what route to travel today. It was a complicated, yet impressive process that took about 10 minutes. Ehlers insisted that the 10 minutes he spent here would save him 30 in the long run. And off we went.
The route was umm, what's a good phrase to describe it?... Scary as hell! That's the one. Rather then taking the most obvious tried and true route, Ehlers took a series of "shortcuts" that took us on a scenic journey through the slums of a state known to many as the garbag.. I mean Garden State.
***Ba-Booomp….. recalculating***
"Just a bump in the road" explained Ehlers. "When taking the road less traveled there will be many potholes along the way. Just like when we lost Francisco Ruiz for the season. Folks will be quick to point them out and say I told you so, you should have flocked like the rest of us sheep and took the status que approach. But the fact is potholes are unprejudiced. There are just as many of them on the free way as on the backroads."
Ehlers has been taking this untraditional approach to running his baseball team as well. He considers himself to have philosophical social anxiety when it comes to being a general manager.
Back when he was working his way through the ranks of professional baseball as a GM, he had a strict vision of the type of team he wanted to build. Upon arrival he worked to build his dream. Along the way he was quickly discourage by the fact that EVERY GM in the league had the same exact vision of building a team of high OBP players, being financially responsible, trading stars for a boatload of prospects when they hit year 5, ect.. It's pretty much the unwritten manual on how to be a BBA GM. So much so that certain other GM's preach about how you should do this or you should do that. Others will critic every trade you make, throwing their hands in the air if they feel one team got a slight edge on what their opinion of fair is.
"I'm not about that life. Just because 29 other teams jump off a bridge, doesn't mean it's a good idea. I used to be apart of the spreadsheet generation. Crunching numbers is math fun at it's best. But do they really tell anything? They do, but they are like a rich mans friend. They only tell you what you wanted them to say. The reality is that baseball is all about wins and losses. Rather then studying past stats which are skewed by the scope of which they were conceived. I take a wide variety of clues and mesh them together to get a feel for the players strengths and weakness. Then try my best to put them in the best position to succeed. Moreover, I'm going to do the exact opposite of what everyone else is doing because it's the core behind the original moneyball concept. And to be honest, it's a lot more fun!"
***Ba-Booomp….. recalculating***
"Just another bump in the road. You see, I'm not trying to say this route is perfect. I may fail miserabley. Maybe get a flat tire, get in an accident, get mugged, whatever. Just like anyone else. But the last thing I want to do is be stuck in traffic behind all of them other guys. I want to take the scenic route. I want to keep moving in a forward direction without stopping. I want to arrive at the finish line and see the look on everyones face when they are like "How the F' did he get here? I didn't see that coming." It may not happen this year, but I'm confident it will someday soon."
***In 500 ft you will have reached you're final destination***
"Well, this is it. Three more games to go. If we get in, the goal has been accomplished. If we lose, we will be the butt of the leagues jokes for another season. You can wait in the car if you want to. This won't take long."
Stay in the car? I wondered. We are at the ballpark. Where could we possibly go next?
"Well after we sweep the Jimmies, I plan on taking a joy ride to the Landis. Buckle up, it's going to be a bumpy ride!"
