Learning how to win
Mr. Lizzie among others, thought "learning how to win" was a stupid and vapid cliche. On it's face, yes it is.
I readily admit this, as well as his point that "learning how to win" doesn't increase one's range at shortstop or one propensity to avoid strikeouts.
But I still think there is something to it. And it's a shared feeling we have and recognise as common culture. What was Crash Davis doing for the Durham Bulls? FOr that matter, what did Dave Andreychuk do for the Lightning. Why the scene of all the players playing better after Roy Hobbes joins the team? Why the cliche of bringing in an old timer to "teach the kids how to be pros". Why the parallel, and sometimes true cliche, that you have to lose in the playoffs in order to know how to win?
Yeah, the results in close games for a team over a season probably correlates with the aggregate WARs of both sides on the field when the game is decided.
"Momentum" is a myth. "When we stepped on the field, we expected to win" is a freindly lie for broadcast consumption.
Everything outside of stats is random variation. NO! Or at least, maybe not.
There is something else there. I'll stipulate that a cliche is a pretty dumb way to express it.
But if one said, "the presence of certain personalities on a team makes the group, has a whole, have a higher level of mental acuity during the game and thus make fewer errors, which translates to one or two wins a season " eyes would roll.
And point out that even those who criticized "learning how to win" knew what I meant. In a similar way, there was a period when one said "putting on the pinstripes made someone a better player".
These cliches could be just projected excuses for the randomness of the game. Or there could be intangibles to the game, and key personalities able to unlock them.
Stupid & vapid, but with enough truth to be interesting to talk about. After statistics....after chance variation....is there anyhting else that can make the difference between winning & losing for a given group in a given season?