Monica Bay will praise — not scold — you, if you spend part of this (or
any other) lovely Spring day browsing the f/k/a Baseball Haiku Page.
Back on May 1st, Monica noted:
“Beisbol’s on everybody’s minds lately: Check out Omega Legal’s
white paper about how “the business of baseball has reshaped the
rules of law firm productivity.”
“infielderf”
“And Jeff Angus’ Management by Baseball: The Official Rules for
Winning Management in Any Field, is fresh off the press, from Collins.
It asks the question, “Why are baseball managers like Joe Torre and
Dusty Baker better role models for leaders in business and government
than corporate icons like Jack Welch, Ken Lay and Bill Gates?”
(Answer: “Because almost everything you need to learn about manage-
ment you can learn from baseball.”)”
Prof. Yabut wants to point out, nonetheless, Peter F. Drucker’s
cautionary note in Managing in a Time of Great Change (1995; at 15):
“There’s a lot of nonsense in team talk, as if teams were
something new. We have always worked in teams, and
while sports give us hundreds of team styles, there are
only a few basic models to choose from. The critical
decision is to select the right kind for the job. You can’t
mix soccer and doubles tennis. . . .
“The great strength of baseball teams is that you can con-
centrate. You take Joe, who is a batter, and you work
on batting. There is almost no interaction, nothing at all
like the soccer team or the jazz combo, the implicit model
of many teams today. The soccer team moves in unison
but everyong holds the same relative position. The jazz
combo has incredible flexibility because everyone knows
each other so well that they all sense when the trumpet
is about to solo.”
. . . “Though we know very little about it, we do realize exec-
utives must be both managers of specialists and synthesizers
of different fields of knowledge — really knowledges, plural.”
Yes, you do need to choose carefully which sports team model
best suits your firm’s overall situation — as well as the needs of
a particular client or case. The f/k/a Gang suggests that a bit
of (nonbillable) reflection over our Baseball Page may help in
making wise choices. [beware: they are “real haiku,” note gim-
micky doggerel; we think you’ll find them far more satisfying.]
Seattle sunset
Ichiro sends one
toward the Sea of Japan
fireflies…
the smallest boy hits
the game winning homer
all day rain
on the playing field
a stray dog
the toddler
runs to third base
first
crack of the bat
the outfielder circles
under the full moon
empty baseball field
a dandelion seed floats through
the strike zone
from Almost Unseen (Brooks Books, 2000)
called third strike–
the slow roll of the ball
back to the mound
two outs in the ninth–
the reliever bangs the ball
against his cup
law office picnic —
the ump consults
his Blackberry
squinting to see him —
another generation
sent to right field
dagosan/david giacalone
You can hear many baseball
poems by ed markowski, read by Joe Harnett, longtime
radio host of “The Old BallGame” by clicking these
May 5, 2006
baseball haiku: no longer a guilty pleasure for lawyers
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