2014 World Series thread

Video game addiction is recognized and studied in-depth by the medical community.

I don't see why it would be so outlandish here. It sounds like those guys were spending hours upon hours on it on game days.

 

It's not outlandish at all. But at this point, the two pieces of evidence we have for it are

1) Some players think it mattered
2) It correlated with the team getting better

And, among right-thinking folks, those are two extremely flimsy pieces of evidence. Skepticism is warranted.

 

I believe the players may have appeased the coaches and cut back because DISTRACTIONS! That's a far cry from believing it had anything to do with a mid-season drought.

 

It's an extension of the morality play. The Royals deserve to be in the World Series because they cast aside their slovenly ways with the vidya games and put in an honest days' work.

 

Sums it up nicely.

 

I'd put it in the same category as the changing strike zone. Nothing conclusive but there certainly might be something there.

I'd like to see a long-term study of the effect on team performance when players cuckold each other. I don't think we'll ever find that data. But I bet it doesn't help matters.

 

The thing that makes it somewhat credible, to me, is that the players specifically refer to the fact that it was taking away from time spent on advanced scouting. That's not just some amorphous distraction, and not a morality play. They weren't doing something they were supposed to be doing, because they didn't have the time to do it.

 

I didn't see that. Where?

 

Bill Lee might have brought a Space Invaders machine directly from space.

Wasn't he actually a space invader himself?

 

But more important than the rhetoric espoused in the meeting was the behavioral changes exhibited by the team.

The players began to show up earlier to get on the training table. They carved out more time to watch video of opposing pitchers. They huddled with hitting coach Dale Sveum more often. The length of their pregame sessions on their iPads shrunk.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/sports/mlb/kansas-city-royals/article3188872.html#storylink=cpy

 

Attributed to nobody. The players don't "specifically refer to the fact that it was taking away from time spent on advanced scouting."