Baseball is dynamic, it has an ebb and flow like the tides so some find it boring. I would suggest that they aren’t watching because during the ebb and flow occassionally a shark jumps out of the water. I find myself cheering at pitches, defensive play and at the brilliant strategies of some gifted managers. Every nuance excites me. I am a fan.
Baseball is a difficult game. The ball moves fast with many curves, hops, deflections and distance in space. Yet it is a natural game, many kids pick it up effortlessly. Keep your eye on the ball was all Dad told me. The play book would fit on a single page (both sides). The deceptions, finesse, strategy and wile takes a lifetime to learn but can be appreciated immediately. I once spent an hour explaining ‘the balk’ to a novice. She stood up at the stadium after seeing the infraction and shouted, “I’ve got it. I’ve got it.” The nearby fans ducked.
Statistics have always bored me, they are better suited to actuaries than baseball decisions. The success of Sabermetrics encourages me to think better math might make better baseball. Physics is more suited to a sport like baseball. Football is geometric. If you have ever practiced higher math you know that no solution comes without intuition. The intuition of game play is not magical or guessing. Players and managers use years of experience to quickly analyse various situations and make lightening fast decisions. That’s some math I’d like to see. Watching Ted Williams you do not think .400%, you think, damn the man strikes like a whip. Albert Pujols is nuclear fission beyond the calculations of simple arithmetic.
I was always a line drive hitter, I could always see the ball but could never get it up in the air for distance. Then I learned to box. Power is about balance, motion and the shifting of weight. Mohammed Ali knows more physics than Einstien. Tall skinny Ernie Banks always said “It’s all in the wrists.” Once again the whip.
The business orientated Rickett’s family has hired a cadre of young MBA types to run the team. Go figure. Epstien is a Sabermetrics guy and a smart cookie graced with charm and aplomb. I hope he can see the neccessity of intuition and think beyond simple statistical math. Lawyers and MBA’s are good at managing static environments which baseball is not. Algorithmic math is about cause and effect, it’s much favored by bankers and economists. Algorithims leave no space for nuance or degree, baseball deserves higher math. The kind of math that goes on instantly in the brain of a little boy or girl.