My Day As a GM...Kinda

Anytime a sport comes to its draft, and the team you follow gets closer and closer to its pick, a switch clicks inside you.

I hope they pick Durant over Oden. He's such a good scorer. He could lead the league in scoring right away! (Not.)

You know you've done this. Admit it. You'll feel better, I promise.

With this in mind, I have decided to tackle what I feel it must be like to be a general manager in the world of sports today. 

If I could pick any team to run, I would run the Indianapolis Colts. This was a tough decision for me, as the Pistons and Red Sox are teams I would also want to run, but the Colts' job seems like it would be the easiest to step in right now and keep things on track.

With the Sox you have an intense media, and (I'll say it) the Pistons are in turmoil right now. Even though they are my favorite basketball team, this is honestly not the time to step in. This is a team in transition. I really hope their decisions in the next few weeks work out, but I'm definitely not envious of Joe Dumars right now.

The Colts have good, family values, and the organization has run smoothly in the Polian-Irsay era. There just seems to be no pressure on the guys running the team, they seem so nonchalant. Maybe it's just their personalities, but I would want to see for myself. 

With that settled, which sport would be the easiest to run a team in, or which sport needs a GM the most? This is tough. I would have to go with baseball. A couple things jump out at me: the number of transactions and managers/head coaches doubling as GMs.

You see a ton of transactions in baseball. No other sports trading-deadline is as big as baseball; it's an event in itself. You are constantly seeing trades and free-agent pickups.

Secondly, you never, I mean NEVER, see a baseball manager making the lion's share of personnel decisions. Granted, some tenured guys such as Bobby Cox and more respected managers will have some say, but they don't make all the moves.

Mike Shanahan basically IS the Broncos. I can't imagine the GM role there being too tough and time consuming if he can head coach (fairly well, if I might add). You see some guys in basketball taking great control (Pat Riley, Isiah Thomas, etc.), but in those cases, they have sent their teams into oblivion, especially Thomas. There are still guys who take the control, unlike baseball. There must be a reason no one does this in baseball. 

I think the reason is this: in terms of the decisions I would be inclined to make, I would definitely take input from coaches and ownership. The former has a great stake in how the team performs, and the latter also has a vested interest and you are just asking for trouble if you don't take advice from the top of the organizational pyramid. 

I guarantee I would be a sucker for the big-potential guy, but I would also take great value in a player's character, because chemistry is a HUGE part of the team. 

Hopefully, this glimpse into my GM fantasy world has given you hope and assurance that I'm actually not the head of a team...yet.

Just kidding.