The Captain Class: A New Theory of Leadership

by Sam Walker

Empiricists don’t believe in the concept of “momentum” in sports. They find it ridiculous to think that a single display of emotion by a respected member of a team could produce a contagion powerful enough to upend the laws of probability. They will tell you that in a linear form of competition like baseball, a winning season is little more than a random event, a fortunate sampling of individual performances in which many players finish the season at the high end of their expected statistical range. As much as I love statistics, I knew that in this case they were wrong. When the 2004 season began, Boston’s de facto leader was the superstar shortstop Nomar Garciaparra, the team’s most popular player. By July 24, however, Garciaparra was on his way out. Injured, aloof, and unhappy, he’d become a lump in the clubhouse. One week later, the Red Sox traded him. At thirty-two years old, Jason Varitek was entering the downslope of his career. During the off-season, the Red Sox, pessimistic about his age, his numbers, and his prospects, had lowballed him on a contract extension. He wasn’t expected to be playing there much longer. Though he had earned the respect of his teammates, Varitek had none of Garciaparra’s star power. Quiet and unassuming, he kept an outdoorsman’s goatee and a wardrobe full of unsightly extra-large sweaters. He handled the pitchers well, showed toughness on the field, and never said anything interesting to the media.