Pages

January 10, 2008

Why We Need Stats, Part 6,904

A sportswriter named Ted Robinson thinks Jack Morris belongs in baseball's Hall of Fame.

FJM's Ken Tremendous has fun with Robinson's column. This is one of Robinson's main points:
Here's what I know. In 1980, I stood just outside the Oakland dugout as Gossage entered in the ninth inning with a one-run lead. Billy Martin, the A's manager, turned to summon pinch-hitters but he couldn't find any. The lefty hitters, most likely to be drafted, had scattered. No one wanted to face Gossage in his prime. Not one batter was anywhere near the bat rack. Martin's coaches had to round up the available men. I have never seen a similar moment.
Unfortunately for Robinson, some people enjoy keeping track of things that have happened in baseball games. And because they like sharing that information, other people, such as blogger Steven Rubio, can look at that archived data and show that a sportswriter's subjective memory (or the memory of anyone else, for that matter) is extremely faulty.

No comments:

Post a Comment