Why I Like Baseball
Category: Sports (Pro/College/HS)...
Posted Monday, July 19, 2004 at 05:50 PM [GMT-6]

I'll admit right up front that I don't have the patience to sit through a televised baseball game, unless it's the World Series and a team I care about is playing (which hasn't happened in a while). There's way too much inaction for my tastes.

Nevertheless, baseball is one of my favorite sports because of all the statistical trivia it generates. Significant numbers of books, websites, spreadsheets and sports bar bets have been created to quantify every conceivable aspect of a game that has, frankly, an embarrasing wealth of aspects.

These quantifications appeal to my inner accountant, so while I won't commit the time to actually watch a game, I'm endlessly intrigued by the fact that if I need to know what left-handed pitcher has the best ERA in games played on days beginning with the letter "s" in cities beginning with the letter "n," there's more than likely someone who can answer that question.

Take the following blurb from today's sports section, for example. It was ensconced in a routine report about how the Detroit Tigers beat the New York Yankees last night (a feat that in itself probably warrants some statistical flag waving). In an offhand manner, the article reports that Detroit thus improved its record to 44-47. Big whoop, right? Well, yes, actually...

I gotta love a game that inspires enough rabid loyalty (not to mention hardcore database programming) to generate stats like that!