What I have come to understand is that everybody believes they can be a general manager.

That makes me realize that NOBODY UNDERSTANDS WHAT THE GENERAL MANAGER’S JOB REALLY ENTAILS!

Most fans (I am including talk show hosts as fans) believe that the general manager’s job is all about putting together the major league team. Certainly that is a major part of the job, but it is far from the entirety of it. There are many more responsibilities that a general manager has beyond just building the 25-man roster in the big leagues. Let’s take a look at some of those duties and then we will look at the major league roster construction….

So despite what you might believe know this — not everyone can be a general manager.

In fact, there are very few that are capable.

– Steve Phillips, AOL Fanhouse.

In a lengthy and vaguely patronizing column, Phillips reminds readers that there’s a lot more to being a Major League GM than putting together a 25-man roster.

Like talking to the scouts, for one. And talking to the manager. And talking to the owner. And talking to the team doctor. And talking to the press. And sometimes, depending on the GM, talking to the players.

I have no doubt that being a GM of a Major League team takes an unbelievable amount of hard work and requires insane hours, but it does seem pretty damn obnoxious to suggest that there are very few people capable. There are a lot of really smart people in the world, and a lot of them are probably willing to work extremely hard for a seven-figure salary and the right to run a baseball team.

I’m not saying I’m one of them; I’ve worked my share of 80-hour weeks in my life, but it’s not something I have the capacity to do regularly.

But I’m certain I know plenty of intelligent, hard-working, driven people who would know better than to trade for Mo Vaughn. And all of them probably recognize that Carlos Beltran is a great baseball player.

Someone started keeping score at our weekly pickup baseball games in Brooklyn, which seemed sweet when I realized it meant we could start keeping our stats, and then significantly less sweet when I noticed I profile similarly to Luis Castillo (after two games, I’m slashing .285/.375/.285).

Anyway, on the bench Sunday we got to wondering why a strikeout is scored a “K.” I figured it wasn’t “S” because of sacrifices, but we couldn’t determine why it would be “K” instead of “T” or some other letter in the word “strikeout.”

From the Wikipedia:

The use of “K” for a strikeout was invented by Henry Chadwick, a newspaper journalist who is widely credited as the originator of the box score and the baseball scorecard. Both the box score and scorecard persist largely unchanged to this day, as the game itself is largely unchanged except for the number of balls and strikes allowed to the pitcher and batter. The letter “S” was used to coin “sacrifice” so Chadwick decided to use “K”, with “K” being the last letter in “struck.” Chadwick also invented many other baseball scoring abbreviations, such as using numbers to designate player positions (progressing from the batter, pitcher [1] and catcher [2], through the infield, with the shortstop counted after the basemen, at number 6, to the right fielder [9]).^[2]

That Chadwick first established the convention of using the “K” abbreviation is well-founded, with reliable and authentic primary materials surviving (see citation above). Those unaware of Chadwick’s contributions have speculated that “K” was derived from the 19th century pitcher Matt Kilroy‘s last name. If not for the evidence supporting Chadwick’s earlier use of “K”, this speculation would be reasonable: Kilroy did much to raise the prominence of the strikeout, setting an all-time record of 513 strikeouts in 1886, only two years after overhand pitching was permitted. Kilroy’s record, however, is forever confined to its era: the pitcher’s mound during his record-setting season was only 50 feet (15 m) from the batter; it was moved to its current distance of 60’6″ in 1893. The modern record (1901-) is 383 strikeouts, held by Nolan Ryan, one better than Sandy Koufax’s 382.

That makes sense, I suppose. “K” somehow does seem more appropriate than “T” or “I” or whatever, but probably only because I’m used to it. Plus those letters can’t be written backwards to denote called third strikes.

But I like the Kilroy story better, for Styx-related reasons.

Not only did Justin Bieber throw out the first pitch, but the teen sensation’s hit “Baby” blasted through U.S. Cellular Field when Teahen came up to bat. Teahen usually plays a reggaeton song by former teammate Jose Lima’s band and mixes in other tunes like “Barbie Girl” by Aqua and “A Bay Bay” by Hurricane Chris.

Not this night. With Bieber at the park, Teahen figured why not use “Baby”? Although he’s not necessarily a die-hard fan of the singer, he said he got turned on to the song a few months ago by his girlfriend and even has it on his iPhone.

– Andrew Seligman, Associated Press.

I’ve got to assume those choices are drenched in irony, which catapults Mark Teahen toward the top of the list of my favorite baseball players. I can’t imagine anyone takes “Barbie Girl” seriously. And bonus points for using Jose Lima’s band. Just the reminder of Jose Lima’s existence is probably enough to make a hitter salivate as he walks to the plate.

Also, Teahen operates a Twitter feed in the name of his dog, Espy.

H/T to Baseball Think Factory for the link.