How can baseball dinosaurs so consistently get Moneyball wrong?

"None of this could have happened without the personal computer, of course."

- Sandra Bullock

 

I must be missing something. Before Bill James or Billy Beane, they did play Major League Baseball, right? And one team won the World Series, right? And a lot of times, that team was the Yankees (like almost any time in baseball history since the 1920), but a lot of times it could have been the Cardinals or the Dodgers or the Reds or the Orioles or the pre-Beane As.

Someone just reminded that was true. So relieved. Thought baseball didn't exist until Sabrmetrics and guys going 13-12 winning the Cy Young and stat geeks trying to tell me that a guy driving in 100 runs in a season might not be all that.

Three things to keep reminding myself: 1. Don't argue religion in an Irish bar. 2. Don't tell a Glee fan you might not like Glee. 3. Don't tell a 21st-century baseball stats geek that baseball did just fine in the 20th century.

 

Did you read the article? If you did and still agree with Conlin you have completely missed the point and are a fool. The rest of your rant was utter nonsense.

Things evolve, well most things. I guess that 13 and 12 pitcher should have been able to control his own offense. It's 2011 Hondo you might want to catch up.

 

It's impossible for things to improve. Got it.

 

You are a caricature of yourself.

 

Go read 'em.





Although, I do remember James at one point saying something like, "the one most effective thing any offensive player can do is hit a home run."

Remember, in the 1970s, it was still possible to find people who would seriously argue that Ty Cobb had been a better baseball player than Babe Ruth.

 

Lost in this debate is the fact that it's the longest thing Conlin has written in 15 years without using the word "Svengali"

 

They played baseball before 1947 right? It did "fine."

 

Thread about a Philly area writer and Drip hasn't dropped by yet?

 

There is money to be made and career breaks at play. And egos to be fed. These guys aren't out only for advancing the dialogue, as some claim.

I know a guy who just turned a recreational blogging outpost into a full-time, corporate-backed baseball blog and then into a weekly column for Baseball Prospectus. For them, that's like making Harvard Law Review.

 

Poor Bill. Oh well. Let's just hope he didn't consult on the Brad Pitt movie coming out soon.

 

So, hondo, to cross sports: was Trent Dilfer a better quarterback than Dan Marino? He's got a ring, after all.