The man behind the Los Angeles Dodgers' success

General Manager Farhad Zaidi introduced Dave Roberts as the Dodger's manager in 2014.

ARE YOU, like me, not a fan of the Boston Red Sox or the Los Angeles Dodgers and looking for someone to root for in the World Series?

As a fan of the San Francisco Giants, I'm loathed to say, I'm reluctantly, kind of rooting for the Boys in Blue even though, as of this writing, they are down two games to zero.

For the last five years, the Dodgers have had a record any team would be proud of: Five divisions championships and for the last two years, playing in the world series.

The Dodgers manager is Dave Roberts, a Japanese American former ballplayer. He's successfully managed a team of egos and talented ballplayers to baseball's pinnacle of success.

However, the reason for Dodgers' rise might lay at the feet of another Asian American. It is no coincidence that their record coincides with the hiring of Farhan Zaidi, the first Asian American general manager of any U.S. professional sports team. It would not be far fetched to say he is behind the man behind the phenomenal success of the L.A. team.

Following is a column I wrote in 2014 when the Dodgers announced the hiring of Zaidi. I updated it with additional material

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IT'S OFFICIAL. The Dodgers announced this morning (Nov. 7) that Farhan Zaidi, one of the A's two assistant managers, will be the new general manager of the Los Angeles baseball  team, making him the first Asian American GM of any of U.S. professional sports team.

Zaidi is a Canadian with Pakistani parentage but get this - he was raised in the Philippines. His father moved to Manila for his job with the Asian Development Bank. 

According to the Los Angeles Times, Zaidi experienced the 1986 revolt against President Ferdinand Marcos. The family was living in a gated community in Manila, although Sadiq’s colleagues suggested they live at a hotel outside the city. When Zaidi was nine years old, the family finally moved outside Manila.

“At one point, there was gunfire, and it really sounded like it was coming from right outside my bedroom,” Zaidi told the Times. “I was so terrified.” Thankfully, the revolt was short and Marcos fled the country.

Not only is the the first Asian American GM, he is the first Muslim GM in the United States.

“I’m a big proponent of diversity in our game,” Zaidi said during his first Dodgers press conference, notes The National. “So from that standpoint, I’m proud of it.”The Dodgers, who won the National League West five years in a row, were ousted from the playoffs in 2013 and 2014 despite having one of the highest payrolls in Major League Baseball. 

What may irk the Dodgers ownership even more, despite all the money they put out and which - on paper - is the most talented team in the National League, they had to watch from the sidelines as their arch rivals, the San Francisco Giants, went on to win the World Series in 2014.

With almost an entirely new front office, the Dodgers are showing that they are serious about shoring up the administrative side of the organization to match what they put on the field. But they may also be saying, playing talent is not enough to win the whole shebam.

They started by hiring Andrew Friedman, former GM of the Tampa Bay Rays. Friedman's first action was to hire to young baseball administrators who will probably bring a whole new way of operating to the organization, owned by the Guggenheim Baseball Management, that's Guggenheim - as in bankrolls of money. 

Besides Zaidi, Friedman brought in Josh Byrnes, former GM of the San Diego Padres, as senior vice president of baseball operations. The two hires will bring a new outlook and operations the Dodgers.

Zaidi's primary focus will be on the major league team and player acquisitions, while Byrnes will overs scouting and player development, said Friedman.

Zaidi, has been with the A's for 10 years, most recently as assistant general manager/director of baseball operations, after five years as director of baseball operations.

Zaidi, 42, earned his bachelor of science degree in economics from Massachusetts Instittue of Technology and a Ph.D in economics from UC, Berkeley. Although totally versed  in sabremetrics, that the A's used to combine winning teams with the lowest payrolls, Zaidi is reported to advocate blending old-school scouting methods with the the advanced analytics to combine the best of both diametrically opposed worlds.

"He's absolutely brilliant," A's GM Billy Beane told a San Francisco Chronicle reporter. "He has a great qualitative mind, but also a creative mind. The ability to look at things both micro and macro is unique and Farhan could do whatever he wants to do, not just in this game, but in any sport or business. I'm more worried about losing him to Apple or Google than I am to another team."
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