Sports Nerd of the Day

Greetings and salutations! We bring you the second installment of SPORTS NERD OF THE DAY (dun, dun, duuuuuh)

Today's sports nerd is Murray Chass of the NY Times

In a recent column Mr. Chass rambled on aimlessly about stuff he didn't like: A-Rod v Jeter, the Rocket's possible return, Bernie's role with Yanks, player contracts and "Statistics mongers promoting VORP and other new-age baseball statistics."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/27/sports/baseball/27chass.html?_r=3&ref=baseball&oref=slogin&oref=login&oref=slogin (I'm not sure if you need an account, It just let me in, prolly because it knew who I was, and what would happen if it didn't!)

It is in the last snippet of his column where Chass turns into the worst type of sports dork, the one who thinks he's a sports bully. Murray, prepare to meet a real sports bully.

This narrow minded, old coot only provides further evidence for how far we still have to come in the "Enlightenment Age of Baseball" (a term which I just made up, trademark pending.) Some of you may be surprised to find out that a sports bully like myself would take the side of baseball dorks, but in between giving Joe Sheehan wedgies and taking Will Carroll's lunch money I spend a good deal of time on the BP site.

Nate Silver had this response to Chass in BP's unfiltered section (no subscription needed) http://www.baseballprospectus.com/unfiltered/?PHPSESSID=ee33330c5a1312f27864d01fde2d489b (right below Kevin Goldstien proclaiming himself a baseball dork, we all knew that already Kevin...but again I hate nerds, dorks I'm ok with)

As Chass writes with his quill, "I receive a daily e-mail message from Baseball Prospectus, an electronic publication filled with articles and information about statistics, mostly statistics that only stats mongers can love." Adding, "Hey you damned kids, get off of my lawn!!"

"For the longest time, I had no idea what VORP meant and didn’t care enough to go to any great lengths to find out. I asked some colleagues whose work I respect, and they didn’t know what it meant either." Did I mention that this guy is a member of the BBWAA (see below)??? I'm sure all his colleagues still yearn for the good ole days when he could watch the New York Giants play the Brooklyn Superbas in Washington Park III; when the DH and Astroturf didn't exist, men wore suits to the game, and there wasn't a colored person in sight! (but Superbas' 2B Tom Daly's 1900 .403 OBP would upset him)

"But their attempt to introduce these new-age statistics into the game threatens to undermine most fans’ enjoyment of baseball and the human factor therein." He's right, understanding things has always made me like them less. I hate knowing that the leadoff guy walking in an inning increases the expected runs scored in the inning from .544 to .926 http://www.baseballprospectus.com/statistics/sortable/index.php?cid=99956. That really makes me lose interest in the game.

The deeper your understanding of the game, the more you can get into it. I have always been a baseball fan (my very first memory is of playing baseball.) When I was 16 I got two great gifts, a car and Bill James' Historical Abstract (I drove and read all day long.) The more I know about the game the more I love it. I definitely know enough to bully Murray Chass.

The guys at BP aren't just the pimply-faced-nerds-in-their-mother's-basements-sitting-alone-no-friends-no-girls-only-numbers (besides Will Carroll...will someone please explain how that guy gets his mug on TV? Will stick to radio) they are fans of the game. Passionate knowledgeable fans, nothing more, nothing less. It's sad that this curmudgeon-nerd (trademark pending) thinks he's better than them.