Ken Davidoff's 101 Dugout Lessons

Ken Davidoff has covered baseball for 30 years running, and his new book moves the focus off the field. 101 Lessons from the Dugout, co-written and forwarded by David Wright, is targeted at young athletes, their coaches, parents, and grandparents. The premise is simple. Each chapter runs one or two pages. Each lesson translates something learned on a baseball or softball diamond into the rest of life.

Chapter two is the lineup. You show up to the field and you are not in it. What do you do? You can let it ruin your day, or you can decide to be the best pinch runner, pinch hitter, or defensive replacement available and win more playing time next game. Davidoff uses his own son as the example, 5 a.m. drives into the hinterlands of Southern California only to sit with a clean uniform. The lesson transfers. Your kid does not get the lead in the school play. Crush the two lines. Win more stage time next round.

The conversation moves to the state of the sport. Davidoff likes the challenge system on automated ball-strike calls. He compares the experience to watching tennis at the US Open. It is entertaining as a spectacle. It is faster than replay. Randy Arozarena tapping his helmet on a 3-2 pitch and walking to first before the challenge result is announced is exactly the kind of moment that will eventually force a conversation about showing up the umpire.

Then the Dodgers. Davidoff channels Homer Simpson. To alcohol, the cause of and solution to all of life's problems. Swap in Shohei Ohtani and you get the cause of and solution to all of baseball's problems. Ohtani's deferred contract set the template. The Dodgers have built an empire off the mechanism. Davidoff expects deferred payments to be written out of the next collective bargaining agreement. The bigger fight, a salary cap, is harder.

The Milwaukee Brewers come up as the pressure point. Nobody accuses Milwaukee of pocketing revenue sharing. They built a 97-win team and got run over by the Dodgers in the playoffs. Something in the economic system has to give.

Davidoff's favorite George Steinbrenner story involves the code 1097 on security guard walkie-talkies at Legends Field in Tampa, alerting the building that the Boss had arrived. The day his wife called to tell him she was pregnant with their first child, Davidoff was mid-chase down a hallway trying to get a quote from Steinbrenner.

Favorite player to cover was Hideki Matsui. Wonderful man. Handled 30 Japanese reporters and the American media with grace and diplomacy. Taught Davidoff one naughty Japanese word that will not be shared on air.

101 Lessons from the Dugout is available wherever books are sold.