Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from “The Five-Tool Team: Bringing Out the Best in People to Make Better Decisions,” by Ricardo Valerdi (Regalo Press, Sept. 29, 2026).

Decisions depend on more than data and analytics. They also call for intuition and trust. Hall of Fame baseball manager Tony La Russa captured this spirit when he said, “Trust your gut, you don’t cover your butt.” His message is that decisions are not about playing it safe to avoid criticism. They are about making choices that reflect conviction and experience; criteria that lead to good decisions. Humanizing decisions means embracing the elements of instinct, relationships, and values that guide us when uncertainty looms. Whether in sports, business, or life, defining moments arrive when leaders choose boldness over fear, not because a spreadsheet tells them to, but because judgment and the trust they have built give them the assurance they need to take calculated risks.

But what happens when instinct collides with data?

Such an example plays out in a tense showdown a decade after the Moneyball revolution, when the Oakland A’s faced a win-or-go-home moment that tested two very different decision-making philosophies.

On one side was the pull of experience and gut feel. On the other was the discipline of evidence and quantitative thinking.

The question was simple: Which approach should the team trust with the season on the line?

The backdrop was the 2014 American League Wild Card Game in Kansas City. Oakland had........

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