Consequentialism in the World of Sports

I recently came across a couple of articles on the website Ethics Alarms that make some very interesting connections to sports and consequentialism. In short, the author of the articles focuses on famous baseball outcomes that were determined by the manager’s decisions. One specific example in the articles was that of MLB outfielder Bryce Harper, who was benched by his manager Matt Williams after not running hard to first base. The game ended with Harper’s less-talented replacement grounding out to lose the game. In the following days, manager Williams was criticized tremendously by fans and analysts for leaving Harper on the bench. This doesn’t come to a surprise either; it is the norm for sports fans to see decisions as right or wrong after the game. Keeping this in mind, consequentialism becomes very relevant in terms of judging an action or decision as right or wrong based on the outcome it brings about. With that said, most sports fans seem to have a consequentialist view when it comes to the outcomes of sporting events. I say this because regardless of the reasons a coach or manager may have for making a decision, more specifically a game-determining decision, a consequentialist would consider the decision that ultimately led to losing a game, such as the example above, as wrong regardless of the manager’s reasons for making the decision. 

         The Bryce Harper example above, can easily be compared to an incident involving NBA player Rajon Rondo Tuesday night, yet the outcomes were much different. After arguing with coach Rick Carlisle in the second half of the game, Rando was benched for the remaining minutes. Shockingly, Rondo’s replacements ended up scoring 27 key points that led the team to a comeback victory. Coach Carlisle’s “game-winning” decision was seen by fans as professional and effective. Knowing that the decision to bench Rondo ultimately led to the best outcome (victory), it could also be said that a consequentialist would agree with the fans just like the first example.  Personally, I can think of numerous sporting events where I had seemingly consequentialist points of view toward the coach’s decisions in the final moments of the game based on having the hindsight of knowing the final outcome. Although this seems normal, it doesn’t seem right to me that I should evaluate sports coach’s decisions or judgments this way primarily because it seems to me that both coach’s made the right decision in benching their star player based on what the player’s deserved for disrespecting their coach.

Personally, I think it is important to take into consideration whether or not an individual is deserving of good things or bad things based on their prior actions or decisions. Similarly, I think that whether or not the player’s deserved to be benched should have some influence on the coach’s decision to bench them or not, yet consequentialism does not acknowledge this “deserving” as something that should constitute whether the coaches’ decisions were right or wrong, only the outcome does. In both examples above, most individuals would agree that the coach’s made the right decision benching the players because they deserved it. I too agree with this. Although sporting outcomes and coaching decisions are not as blurry as complex moral dilemmas, there is still something to say about consequentialism’s complete focus on the best outcomes. As I have tried to illustrate in the examples above, there are many more factors (individuals deserving things) than just outcomes that I believe should be evaluated when considering whether a judgment is right or wrong at the time it is made.

Works Cited

            "Case Study in How Sports Encourages Consequentialism: The 1968 Detroit Tigers." Ethics Alarms. Last modified October 2, 2013. Accessed February 26, 2015. http://ethicsalarms.com/2013/10/02/case-study-in-how-sports-encourages-consequentialism-the-1968-detroit-tigers/.

            Shafer-Landau, Russ. The Fundamentals of Ethics. New York, 

NY: Oxford University Press, 2010. 

            "Yet Another Consequentialism Lesson from Baseball." Ethics 

Alarms. Last modified April 20, 2014. Accessed February 25 2015. 

http://ethicsalarms.com/2014/04/20/yet-another-consequentialism-

lesson-from-baseball/.