Everyone loves a good baseball story, but how often can you find one to tie into your OM lecture? In case you don’t follow the sport, here is a quick summary of how a lack of technology (a topic in Ch.7) cost the St. Louis Cardinals Game 5 of the 
2011 World Series, as reported in The Florida Union-Times (Oct.26,2011). In an age of texting, email, iChat and Skype, baseball, it seems, remains mired in the Civil War era of flannel uniforms. St. Louis manager Tony La Russa conveyed his decision to the bullpen to change pitchers (in the 8th inning with the score tied 2-2 against opponent Texas Rangers) using the old-fashioned dugout phone (shown in the photo).
La Russa’s call to bullpen coach Derek Lillquist to warm up two pitchers, Rzepcynski and Motte, was perhaps drowned out by the screaming crowd of 51,459 fans. So Lillquist thought La Russa only said Mark Rzepczynski. La Russa called back to confirm and asked for Motte again. This time, Lance Lynn started to throw, even though he was supposed to be resting from the previous game and used only in an emergency. The series of miscommunications wound up putting Rzepczynski on the mound against Mike Napoli with the bases loaded, a lefty-righty matchup that clearly favored Texas. The Rangers catcher delivered with a two-run double that sent Texas to a 4-2 victory.
For all the magnificent scoreboards in each ballpark, and all the computers that track each pitch, it seems baseball is stuck with land lines. “It’s amazing “, says TV commentator Keith Olbermann. “With all the technology here, they can’t get a call completed from one part of the building to another? You go to an Apple store, the communications device the salesman is carrying is capable of launching a nuclear device”.
A happy ending, by the way, for the Cardinals, winning the 7th game by 6-2.
As both a long-time Phillies fan (a team that the Cardinals beat in the first round of the playoffs this year) and a professor who uses technology to communicate with my students, I am astounded that ANYONE would trust land line, voice-only communications. For example, I was not able to reach many of my students through Blackboard-based emails, so I started using a text messaging software. I know that every student (just like every customer, employee, or almost anyone else on the planet) has three things with them at all times – their keys, their wallet, and their cell phone. Now, I realize that a major league coach may not have his keys and wallet with him while wearing a uniform. But certainly, SOMEONE out there had a cell phone! And, of course, the teams can easily install phones with text capabilities. If you were a major league coach, or team owner, wouldn’t you like to have a text-line-by-text-line list of the decisions and communications from a game? Wouldn’t that lead to better decisions in the future?
Professor Quain makes a great observation regarding students and communications. The ubiquitous cell phone and text messaging drive so many of our interpersonal dealings. It is kind of surprising that La Russa didn’t simply text his pitching coach.