There are many different quirks that sports fans have while watching games either live or on television. One of these particular quirks is prominent no matter what sport they are watching.

Everyone becomes a coach.

It doesn’t matter if someone is watching football, hockey, basketball, or baseball. As soon as a decision or play is made that he or she disagrees with, he or she instantly becomes a better coach who would have done things differently . The reality is we don’t know what choice we would make in a certain situation, but it can be fun and interesting to debate with others.

Confessional: Have you ever gotten in to a discussion about certain coaching tactics while watching a sport? What sport was it and what was the debate?

I had the opportunity to have one of these discussions with someone who has experienced those situations and has made the decisions that fans undoubtedly disagreed with.

During my internship I would occasionally stay after games were over and spend some time hanging out and talking with other interns and members of the front office. There were also nights when the manager of the team would come by for a bit and it was always fun to talk about how the team was doing or the major league club or just listen to him tell stories from his time in the sport.

It was one of these nights when I ended up sitting next to him and watching the end of the Philadelphia Phillies game. I honestly don’t remember who they were playing or what inning it was, but I do know it was late in the game, the score was close, and with an opposing player in scoring position, everyone was speculating whether or not the manager should or would change pitchers.

That’s when Reading’s manager turned to me and said, “What would you do?”

He was a guy with 13 years of experience as a player and almost as many years of experience as a manager or coach. I on the other hand had about six years of playing softball, six years of managing/scorekeeping for softball, and 12 years of working in a baseball stadium to rely on.

And he wanted to know what I would do?

The conversation quickly turned into a discussion of what each of us would do in different situations in a game. I looked at each one with my limited baseball knowledge and he looked at it with his actual professional experience. It was interesting to see how many times we had similar ideas.

This is still one of my favorite memories from my internship. It was interesting to be able to talk about the game with someone who had experience both playing and managing. He would provide both a player’s perspective and a manager’s perspective for different scenarios while I would give my thoughts from a fan’s perspective. I learned quite a bit during that 15-20 minute conversation.

Don’t get me wrong, just like any other sports fan I still get frustrated when a manager makes a move I don’t agree with. Honestly, it happens quite a bit when I’m working because we get to watch the entire game thanks to our prime location. There are still times when I think, “Well I wouldn’t have made that move” or “why would he do that?” During those moment though, I also stop and think, “Well, maybe this is what he was thinking.” And sometimes, it’s just fun to think that what you would do is a better idea.

After all, who doesn’t like to imagine they could do a better job than someone else?