Dinner Out

           "Dinner Out is a go." Mookie Betts organized a team gathering at a Japanese restaurant. He prepared to pick up the tab for forty-five teammates, but Dustin Pedroia and other unnamed veterans spared him that cup. 

How important is team chemistry in baseball? Old-timers remember the "We Are Family" Pittsburgh Pirates of 1979. But slightly older fans also remember the 1977 dugout confrontation between Billy Martin and Reggie Jackson. 


Martin had to be restrained from going after Jackson . 

A little over four months later, the Yankees captured yet another World Series. 

Dave Roberts has a pragmatic view of baseball chemistry. "Winning definitely bands a team together. It's easy to have good chemistry when you're winning."

Sometimes chemistry occurs when players have a common enemy, like the manager or ownership. The fictional representation of that was Tom Berenger's "Major League". 

A baseball team is a 'cross-functional team' from an organizational standpoint. This Harvard Business Review illustrates that cross-functional teams are frequently dysfunctional. The author noted, Cross-functional teams often fail because the organization lacks a systemic approach. Teams are hurt by unclear governance, by a lack of accountability, by goals that lack specificity, and by organizations’ failure to prioritize the success of cross-functional projects.

A few successful projects didn’t have cross-functional oversight — but we found in those cases that they benefitted from support by a single high-level executive champion. Projects that had strong governance support — either by a higher-level cross-functional or by a single high-level executive champion — had a 76% success rate, according to our research. Those with moderate governance support had a 19% success rate.

Contrast the Red Sox with recent revolving door administration (Theo Epstein, Ben Cherington, Dave Dombrowski) and inconsistent organizational process with the Patriots with a "single high-level executive champion (Bill Belichick). The Red Sox accountability roller coaster most recently oversaw the departure of Larry Lucchino and Ben Cherington when most of the instruments of failure (the players) survived. The Patriots' architect of policy will oversee the departure of those failed instruments. 

In other words, Dinner Out is non-story propaganda pushed because we have no 'real news' to report.