TOREY LOVULLO and PAUL MOLITOR are the NL and AL MANAGERS OF THE YEAR. Congrats. But why does it matter? Is the manager of the year award the most useless in sports? What's the criteria for the award? Is it just how much a team beat spring training expectations? How do you prove someone is a good manager? Deciding the best one in each league is a quixotic task. Should voters go on wins? How important is a manager? How many wins is a manager worth? Players win games, even if managers get credit. Most managers get judged by his team's expectations. Out-run them and he's good. Fall short and he's bad. Is it a meritocracy or about narratives? Maybe we can figure out how much contribution a manager makes to a winning team by how often they're being replaced now. DUSTY BAKER, JOHN FARRELL, JOE GIRARDI were all fired despite postseason runs. The center of power in an organization has moved from the dugout to the front office. Franchise alignment is key but are teams also looking for managers who'll follow directions, not necessarily think for themselves? What does that tell us about how much value managers add? Are good football, basketball or hockey coaches more easily identifiable? What's the difference between a good manager and a bad one? Maybe not that much... A WORLD CUP without ITALY, NETHERLANDS, CHILE, GHANA, or the US. That'll be weird. At least ARGENTINA snuck in. Maybe it's for the best the US isn't playing. Sad that we'll never see GIANLUIGI BUFFON play for the AZZURRI again. Italy missing the World Cup is like the French adding cream to carbonara. The WC isn't the same without the blue-bloods. At least we'll still have the ENGLISH to miss a penalty kick. The losers tournament might be fun... UCLA freshman LIANGELO BALL is headed home from CHINA after being arrested for alleged shoplifting, and his father LAVAR BALL didn't start an international incident. This is already better than when BART and HOMER went to AUSTRALIA... Does this make MIKE MCCARTHY MICHAEL SCOTT?... When you thought you were sitting outside the splash zone at SEA WORLD but you were wrong.