Baseball without Arabs and Indians
by BrRoyal on Mar 26, 2009 9:34 AM EDT
18 comments
As most people are aware, our current numerical system is based on the Arabic numeric system which was more clearly defined by residents of India. Idle curiosity (the monk's enemy) has led me to wonder whether we would all enjoy baseball quite so much without this ingenious system. Forget about sabremetrics for a moment, and imagine simply trying to calculate batting average from Roman numerals.
After all, it works for the Superbowl!
As it turns out, I have found no evidence that Romans wrote fractions in numerals so much as would have had to write out the words ("one eighth, or seven twelths"). This would be quite cumbersome. Of course, I doubt anyone would list batting average as two hundred eighty seven thousandths. I think we can assume that the Statheads (I'm looking at you, Cicero) would have simply given the number without the fractional state as we do today.
So, instead of a .287 hitter, we'd have a 287 hitter. Oh, but I forgot. We don't have those digits. Our hitter has become a CCLXXXVII hitter. Looks pretty talented to me! Especially compared to a CCXCVIII hitter! After all, the first number is bigger. . . or, um, longer? What's that you say? The second one is better? Shoot! I hate this game! How can anyone understand it, much less enjoy it? All Statheads are total geeks!
I guess what this boils down to is, be thankful for what you've got. I'm very thankful to have a brilliant numeric system and can't imagine how Pythagoras got by. I'm also thankful for the insight this site provides about new metrics. At the same time, be patient with those who are learning the new metrics. They're moving from Roman to Arabic numerals, which would be a tough transition. And those who don't appreciate the sport feel like they're looking at Roman numerals because they don't understand what people are looking at.
Oh, and I sure wish Brett had hit CD rather than CCCXC, but that’s still a hell of a season.
Hope everyone enjoyed this simple exercise. And for all of you who want to see what you batted in high school, here’s a handy translator.
Feel free to try doing some sabremetrics in numerals, too.
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posting is work
I can’t understand how you guys do so much of this on top of jobs.
by BrRoyal on Mar 26, 2009 9:34 AM EDT reply actions 2 recs
To post frequently, I think you have to be
A full-time student, some sort of nomadic, wandering independent operator, or a hybrid combination of both
Waiting for April.
by DC Royal on Mar 26, 2009 10:06 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
... or don't sleep.
by Jeff Zimmerman (TucsonRoyal) on Mar 26, 2009 12:39 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
I am shockingly busy but still try to get on RR for a few hours each week.
You just make time for what is important to you. Baseball is the only hobby I’ve kept. We have to carve out a space in our lives for things like this.
Some people juggle geese. (points for whoever gets this reference!) I watch and write about baseball.
www.rockchalktalk.com for pretty good KU baseball coverage
by James Quinn on Mar 26, 2009 12:48 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
or just risk a firing
The General Theory of Royaltivity
by kabrink on Mar 26, 2009 3:02 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Baseball is based on a factor of three.
Three bases.
Three times three gives nine innings.
Three strikes for an out. Three pitches outside the strike zone are allowed, no more.
The playing diamond is built on factors of three. The distance between bases is three times thirty, 90 feet.
The season is built on a series of three game match-ups between opposing teams.
Have I missed any? I guess it would be quite a stretch, but are not the dimenstions of most park built to confirm to a right and left field fence corner 360 feet from home plate?
There is a guiding simplicity to baseball. I think it is one of the reasons I love it so much. There is order to be found.
www.rockchalktalk.com for pretty good KU baseball coverage
by James Quinn on Mar 26, 2009 12:36 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
+ 2 x 30 = 60' - 6"
Deep, deep, nearly lost legend holds that the pitching rubber was originally exactly 60’. But, because Christy Mathewson was so tall and so good they moved it back 6" to help the hitters.
The General Theory of Royaltivity
by kabrink on Mar 26, 2009 3:08 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
And didn't they lower the pitching mound to 18 inches back in 1962?
And don’t even get me started on Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown. Some people take this whole number thing too far.
www.rockchalktalk.com for pretty good KU baseball coverage
by James Quinn on Mar 26, 2009 3:14 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Last year I was reading the diary of Ezra Stiles, who was the president of Yale in the 1770s
and he regularly used roman numerals in his diary, which I found insane/awesome
such as… “the speech lasted VII minutes and began at III in the afternoon”
gotta love neoclassicism
by royalsreview on Mar 26, 2009 1:27 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Yeah, that's pretty cool, I guess
but MY diary is filled with awesome pictures of smiley hearts, rainbows and kittens. True classicism.
Baseball's that swingy stick game, right?
by royalsroyalsroyals on Mar 26, 2009 1:37 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Kinda along the same lines
But Malcolm Gladwell’s latest book has an interesting chapter theorizing that Asian students are much better than Western students at math because of how you say numerals in Asian languages makes much more intuitive sense than our way of saying numerals.
He says that in Asian culture, once you get past ten, you say the numbers like “ten-one, ten-two, ten-three”, whereas in English we have a made up word “eleven” which inherently has no relationship to “ten” or “one”. This small difference he thinks makes a big difference in the way kids think about math.
So that explains why the WBC Final was Japan vs. Korea.
Relive Royals History at royalsretro.blogspot.com
by RoyalsRetro on Mar 26, 2009 2:18 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
French is plenty crazy when it comes to numbers.
In French eighty is “four twenties.” Hopefully the Royals will win “four twenties and five” games next year.
www.rockchalktalk.com for pretty good KU baseball coverage
by James Quinn on Mar 26, 2009 2:57 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
English, too, has vestiges of this vigesimal system.
As we would say in the past: We hope the Royals can win four-score-and-seven games.
And as one governor of Tokyo once said, “I have a feeling it is aptly said that French fails as an international language because it is a language that can’t count numbers”
Kansas City Royals: your 2006 and 2007 NL Central champions!
by mazoboom on Mar 27, 2009 9:16 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
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