Strategy: I read Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball by George Will a few years
ago. In the book Will goes to great lengths explaining the strategical details
of four facets of the game: managing, pitching, hitting, and fielding.
Obviously, the detail of baseball strategy cannot be explained in one blog
paragraph – it took Will 350 pages, but the point is it took will 350 pages, and
many more great men have written on the subject. Most baseball managers (as well
as most catchers and pitchers and a lot of players) know the details of every
opponent: where they hit the ball in particular situations, off of certain
pitches, or pitchers, at what point in the count did he hit hit it, and to
exactly what part of the field, what percentage of the time. The Managers chart
pitches the same way. And they do this for every player (about 750 guys). Now
they have help in compiling this information, but they do know the information
and make decisions accordingly. Maybe football can rival baseball in this regard
(which is why I personally rank it #2), but no other sport comes close. If you
don’t believe me, read the book. You can probably get a used copy pretty cheap.