There is a narrative element to classic stats, a colorful element, a fun aspect to them. At BJOL today:
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I think we would agree that the expression "24-0, 1.27" contains not only information, but also --- > a story unto itself. Here are some stats that contain not only information, but also complete stories within themselves:
- 24-0, 1.27
- 60 HR
- 9 0 0 0 0 0 12 ... and a K-shaped victory dance
- 130 SB
- 116 W
- etc
Sabermetricians challenge us to justify our enjoyment of this story-telling. Periodically they nag us to remove these references from our baseball chat. SSI resists their attempts to do so.
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James makes an interesting little challenge to the saber-snob ... he proposes that this "colorful" aspect to classic stats is what got the sabermetrician first interested in stats.
Huh!
Could it be that we have forgotten from whence we came?
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While we're on the subject, here are some more classic stats that contain emotional content for me:
- 71-91
- 14-6, 2.66
- 11-16, 5.26
- 22 HR, 69 RBI .... next to 23 HR, 80 RBI
- 12-10, 3.04
71-and-91 is the M's record from 2013, and it is baseball melancholy. You're not even bad enough to be amusing, not bad enough to be obviously in a rebuild, you're just .... a failure, and nothing else.
You could put a term next to all 162 possible won-loss records. Next to 71-91, I call dibs on "DREARY." Dr. D has seen a lot of dreary seasons in his day.
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How did Hisashi Iwakuma lose only 6 games? For this team? Bill Krueger called him a "coin-op machine." Those 6 losses, I think best convey the story.
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11-and-16 was Joe Saunders' record.
It seems like Glenn Abbott went 11-16 every year in the 1970's. Sixteen losses, with about ten wins, that is a Seattle Mariner workhorse. (Actually Floyd Bannister was 10-15 in 1979 ... Rick Honeycutt was 10-17 the next year ... Matt Young and Jim Beattie were 10-15 and 11-15 each in 1983 ... you get the idea. Joe Saunders would have been the #2 starter for umpty-leven Mariners teams of my youth.
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Those 20 HR, 75 RBI seasons. That was a MOTO season for 1970's Mariners. Here, the expansion year 1977 ... Lee Roy Stanton, Dan Meyer, and Ruppert Jones. They all had Seager/Morales seasons.
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12-and-10. Isn't that what Felix does for us every year? In almost every season, Felix is a game or two away from .500. What do you get, when you put an HOF pitcher onto a team like Seattle? You get 12-10.
Sigh,
Dr D
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