Bill James on Freakonomics.com

Good stuff:

Has looking at the numbers prevented you from actually just enjoying a summer day at the ballpark? Have we all forgotten the randomness of human ballplayers? By reducing players to just their numbers can we lose sight of the intangibles such as teamwork, friendships, and desire.
A: Does looking at pretty women prevent one from experiencing love? Life is complicated. Your efforts to compartmentalize it are lame and useless.

about 1 year ago stuckinstl12 3 comments 0 recs |

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That's supposed to be in quotes. Woops.

by stuckinstl12 on Apr 1, 2008 9:29 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Good stuff

There really is this idea among many baseball fans and writers that somehow sabermetrics and the study of baseball stats has somehow hurt the game or fans enjoyment of it. I don't understand how knowing more about the game and understanding it in a different way hurts the game or makes fans enjoy it less.

The fundamental flaw in their argument is that they think statheads and sabermetricians reduce the game to merely numbers. Nothing could be further from the truth. They may rely primarily on numbers to analyze the game, but they look at other things as well. And, more importantly, they love the actual game. They love watching the games and going to the games and feeling the joy of victory and the agony of defeat. We statheads are fans. We just look at the game slightly differently from the old school traditionalists.

I probably disagree with you.

by NYRoyal on Apr 1, 2008 11:39 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs