You never win anything with kids

Baseball is my second sport. Like someone learning a second language, I’m going to use my first sport, football, as a basis for understanding baseball. As with language, there are general rules that will apply to almost any sport. As with language, I will occasionally get things completely wrong, and make no sense, but I truly believe that the only way to build a succesful sports team is to base it around a core of young homegrown kids. This is why.

“You never win anything with kids”.

In hindsight, one of the most stupid things ever said by a sports commentator, in this case, ex-Liverpool defender Alan Hansen on BBC’s Match of the Day after Manchester United lost 3-1 to Aston Villa on the first day of the 1995-96 season. Manchester United had won the Premier League title in 1992-93 and 1993-94, and finished second in 1994-95. But during the close season they sold 3 players seen as key to their championship success – Mark Hughes, Andrei Kanchelskis and Paul Ince – to make way for some kids from the youth system. Alan Hansen wasn’t alone in thinking Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson had gone lost his mind. After all, it had taken United 26 years to reclaim the title, and it looked like he’d thrown away the chance to create a dynasty.

But what kids they were. That year, United won the double (league and FA Cup, a rare achievement). And since then, Manchester United have dominated English football, winning a total of 9 championships, and the European Cup, the biggest prize in world football, twice. And all because of those kids.

During the 26 years from 1967-1993, Manchester United failed to win the league title, despite being amongst the best supported and richest clubs in the country. During this time they went through a number of high profile managers and signed many big name players. Obviously, they were doing something wrong.

So what changed? In 1986 Manchester United appointed Alex Ferguson as their manager. He had previously managed Aberdeen in Scotland. The Scottish league is dominated by the two Glasgow giants Rangers and Celtic, but between 1979-1985 under Ferguson, Aberdeen won the league title 3 times. To put that achievement into context, in the 22 years since Ferguson left Aberdeen, every title has been won by either Rangers or Celtic. Part of his success is due to his ability to inspire players to great heights, usually through inducing a seige mentality, making players believe the world is against them. But alongside this he has always based his teams on a core of players produced through the youth system. And so when he arrived in Manchester, he made two vital moves that changed a team that couldn’t buy the title into the dominant force in English football for 20 years.

First, he cleared out the bad influences in the dressing room; a number of star players spent their spare time drinking. Not the best preparation for a professional sportsman, and a bad influence on the younger players at the club. No matter how good they were, these malign influences were sold – a brave move as players like Paul McGrath would have successful careers subsequently. This changed the attitude of the club, and established that no one player is bigger than the club.

More importantly, Ferguson revitalised the youth program. Setting up a youth system that will supply top quality players requires an extensive scouting system and world class coaching, as well as a bit of luck, and the players produced through the first few years of the Ferguson era tended to have short careers at the very top level.

But United’s domination of English football is down to these youth players who emerged between 1992 and 1996. These players include Ryan Giggs, the most decorated player in English football history, Paul Scholes, the most talented English midfielder of his generation and Gary Neville, the current club captain, all of whom are still key players at the club. This group of players also includes David Beckham (eventually, controversially sold by Ferguson – since then, United have won 3 more titles and the European Cup), Nicky Butt and Phil Neville who have since left the club, but were also key contributors to Manchester United’s domination of the 1990s, culminating in the treble of 1999, an unprecedented achievement. These 6 key players cost the club essentially nothing. But no youth system can ever supply all the needs of a club. So these players were supplemented by astute signings of unknown players from Scandinavia (Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Peter Schmeichel), inspired signings of players out of favour at other clubs (Eric Cantona) and wise uses of United’s money to sign great players from smaller teams (Gary Pallister, and most importantly Roy Keane).*

I therefore believe that for a baseball team, the key to long-term success is having a great minor league system. We can see this in Tampa Bay’s success last year. Or how about the recent Yankee dynasty? This was a team of players with Yankee blood in their veins, ‘true Yankees’ like Jeter, Posada and Rivera. Once the Yankees started to splash the cash on the best free agents each offseason in an attempt to prolong the dynasty, they’ve won nothing with an enormous payroll. Last year, they seemed to have the right idea by looking to Hughes and Kennedy to anchor the rotation – (un)fortunately they sucked, and this off season they went back to spending big on free agents.

Focusing on youth always makes a huge amount of financial sense; young players are cheap; they don’t tend to sign huge contracts, then break down injured or age and become useless (Mo Vaughan, Marlon Anderson, Moises Alou, Pedro Martinez etc). And home grown players please the fans (look at how many Wright and Reyes shirts you see at the average Mets games; think how much money that makes). The most popular players amongst fans who attend games are almost always the players who’ve spent their whole career at the club (Think Derek Jeter). These young players learn to play together, develop team spirit from a young age, and will feel that they belong to the team and that the team belongs to them. They will care about the Mets. They will want to win for the Mets, and that can only be a good thing.

Furthermore, I believe fans will tolerate a season or two of rebuilding if they know that there is a core of young players waiting in the wings. There is nothing more fun than seeing a young player succeed at a club. The most fun I’ve had at Shea stadium was being there the day Pelfrey came of age and got a standing ovation as he came out to pitch the 8th during a shut out, a really magical moment, the crowd chanting ‘let’s go Pel-frey’, delighted to see one of their own finally come good.

It is unlikely your system will produce an MLB-quality starter at every position. But a big market team like the Mets can sign relatively young, elite free agents (Carlos Beltran) or trade prospects for more established players (Johan Santana). Then, with the money saved, you can buy out arbitration years, and sign your prospects long term, keeping payroll low.

The Mets should look to the Red Sox as a model – unable to win the World Series for almost a century, they appointed a smart, statistically aware front office who realize the value of developing your own players. They have one of the best minor league systems yet are competitive at the Major League level with a number of players from the minor league system, and look capable of developing a dynasty, not withstanding the Yankees ridiculous spending spree.

What I’m saying is, the Mets need to get the balance right between a ‘win it now’ mentality and building for the future; right now they seem to be sacrificing the future to be almost competitive now. If Omar had focused more on building the farm system whilst making the team competitive, the future would look much brighter. But it’s never too late to change.

So Omar, no more aging free agents. Protect your draft picks – only sign a type A free agent if they are elite and there is no other option for that position. If you must sign a type A, try and get a first round draft pick back by letting your type A’s walk. And you MUST pay above slot in the draft. Finally, look to the future and think about selling high – how about seeing what prospects you can get for Carlos Delgado right now?

*Things have changed somewhat recently – the English Premiership is now the richest league in the world, attracting the worlds best players. It no longer seems possible to build a team of young British players and win the league (although Martin O’Neil is trying his best at Aston Villa). Instead, United are now focussing on signing young players from around the world before they become established (and expensive); this is best exemplified by Cristiano Ronaldo, signed to replace David Beckham and now arguably the best player in the world. Of course, United also still splash the cash on the occasional older superstar (Berbatov), and find the occasional bargain (Vidic, Evra). But finding talented young players remains the foundation of the United ‘dynasty’.