Our web pick this week is an interesting guest article by Jon Sciambi published at Baseball Prospectus on Tuesday. Sciambi, known as ‘Boog’ to many, is a commentator for ESPN and he previously did the play-by-play for the Atlanta Braves. He was one of my favourite ‘local’ commentators that we get to enjoy via MLB.TV so it’s a bit of a shame that he will not be covering Chipper and co this season, but I can hardly begrudge him his well-deserved new job (he previously worked ESPN games part-time).
Anyway, Jon is known for being open to new ideas and in particular for bringing some advanced statistical thoughts to the masses. Will Carroll, one of the Baseball Prospectus staff writers, posted a blog recently about getting the advance-stat message out to more people (the blog post and resulting comments are worth reading as well) and Sciambi’s article provides a professional broadcaster’s response to some of the issues, ideas and preconceptions raised.
I’m a lot like Jon in the sense that while I do take a keen interest in stats and how they can help you to understand more about the game, I’m not really a ‘maths’ person. When stat-based articles go too far down the route of explaining regression methods and suchlike, they go over my head because it’s not the sort of thing I know much about and more importantly it’s not the sort of thing I’m greatly interested in learning either. There are lots of things in this world that do pique my inquisitive nature, but grappling with long equations and calculations is not one of them.
However, taking an interest in advanced stats does not mean you have to get neck-deep into spreadsheets and databases. Some people do, of course, but the majority of us can sit back and enjoy the fruits of their labour. What we need are people who can interpret the numbers and relay genuinely insightful information about the game in a simple and enjoyable way.
Sciambi provides some interesting thoughts on how TV broadcasts can be part of this, whilst also recognising that a lot of people simply want to sit down and while away an afternoon or evening by enjoying a ballgame. Bringing more advanced stats into baseball coverage is a good idea, but those involved need to understand that it’s not what everyone is after. That’s not because they are dumb or have an unshakeable belief in the sanctity of RBI’s and batting average, it’s because they just want to enjoy the game with their friends and aren’t fussed either way about which stats are cited.Â
Educating people is always a worthy goal, so explaining the limitations of some of the traditional stats and introducing new ideas is an endeavour that should be encouraged. However it needs to be done in an enjoyable way. In other words, not in a ‘I’m telling you this to show that you are dumb and I am smart’ kind of way, which some of the advanced stat stuff (like any advanced or academic movement) is prone to suffer from at times.
