ERA formula

Its ok Bob! BB's like this one are all about responding to statements like that one, and I think you responded very eloquently.

Actually, I was thinking that baseball is really nothing more than statistics in the sense that when I look at the paper or read posts on this board, the only way I have to judge what went on in a game is by stats.

Even if someone is actually at the game and watching as intently as possible, he can't possibly grasp every single thing that makes any game, or even any single play what it is. All he can do is measure it by the result and that means stats!

When you depend on someone else's description of what went on, how can you possibly know if its really true? Look at this situation. Bases loaded, 2 outs, bottom of the 9th with the team batting behind 3-1. Batter hits a ball to the gap and 3 runs score to win the game.

You tell your friend that the batter won the game with a timely hit. I tell my friend the right fielder lost the game by not cutting the ball off properly. The guy in the booth says the pitcher lost the game because he hung a curve. The pitcher tells his wife the batter got lucky and hit a ball a foot over his head. The batter tells his girlfriend he saw the pitch all the way and drove it to the opposite field.

In other words, everyone is looking at different things and coming to their own conclusions. But the guy in Fargo ND who looks at the sports page and only sees line scores, doesn't get all that other stuff. All he knows is, one team scored 3 runs in the bottom of the 9th to win the game.

Remember when I said all anyone does is mark the score, not draw pictures? That wasn't quite true. Every description, video tape, film or recording is really a picture of what went on. but the only true picture is the score, which is a stat.

One reason I love the game so much is that all of those things in a game are available and I'm allowed to judge them on my own. When someone says their kid bats .399, that's the stat, and its a fact. But I get to decide for myself how much value I attach to it. If the kid is 5 and playing t-ball, I just blow it off. But if the guy is Larry Walker's dad and its two weeks before the end of the season, all of a sudden it gets my attention!

Its all perception. Heck, if the game where that kid from Harlem made his social errors hadn't been on TV for everyone to see and reported on like it was the most important thing going on in sports that day, its doubtful than more than a few people who actually saw it would have been bothered, and they would have probably forgotten it in a day or two.

That points out the problem and the greatness of "drawing pictures". Without them, the shot heard 'round the world would have been lost forever. It means one thing to Booby Thompson and quite another to Ralph Branca.

Gotta have stats in order to have history. If somehow every recorded baseball stat were suddenly erased from existence, would the game still be what it is? I like to think that I'd still find enjoyment watching one, but it surely wouldn't mean as much.

The hot dogs and sodas are just as much a part of the game as a bat and ball. They help paint the picture. But I'll bet someone know exactly how many were sold!