The Player Coach

Troy Frever of Aviarc (and a fellow member of the Seattle XP board) described his role of lead dev and XP coach as a “player coach.”  I immediately thought of Pete Rose.  But, upon reflection, I’m not sure Pete is a good metaphor.

Sure Pete coached the Reds while he played first base, batted .365 and broke Ty Cobb’s Major League record for career hits.  But, the role of baseball coach is actually a combination of mentor and manager.  When the game is on the line, the mentor roll takes a back seat to the manager role.  The coach may want to let the rookie try to pitch his way out of trouble.  But, the manager has an obligation to do everything possible to win the game.

I don’t know.  Maybe that is a good metaphor.  What’s your opinion?

Comments

• Anonymous
  July 27, 2005
  I like the metaphor of Pete Rose, but it seems to be slightly off track. If you look at Pete as a Player Coach, then you have to look at what he brought as a player (setting the tone of hustle, solid hitting, solid defense and take no prisoners) and as a coach (mentoring and managing, which you covered).
  
  If you just take out the play-calling and substitution parts of his coach role, the metaphor actually works quite well.
  
  Hmm...maybe you were on track after all.