Comments on: Holier Than Thou Sabermetricians Rain On Our Parade

By: ON STATISTICAL MODERATISM « EL MAQUINO

ON STATISTICAL MODERATISM « EL MAQUINO — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 01:03:33 +0000

[...] Constantly, we see comparisons of sabermetric-minded fans (or statheads) to guys in the basement of their mom’s house who do not actually enjoy the game, but only like breaking it down into a spreadsheet. Nerds. If you let loose with that kind of stereotype, you can be sure they will find you and paste you. [...]

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 20:06:36 +0000

This is hilarious writing, nice work dude. I can even picture the responders angrily banging out their comments with a smiling poster of Rob Neyer on the wall behind them. Guys, instead of getting defensive when somebody is being dismissive of Sabermetrics, just close your eyes, take a deep breath, and say 15 “Mickey Tettletons”…

By: henry

henry — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 18:28:42 +0000

“These are mostly lost souls, not Ivy league graduates who attempt to calculate spreadsheets for DPS and project David Wright’s value over the course of five years.”

Actually, I graduated Cornell with a degree in Math in 1996 — and I’m far from the most math-saavy of people who like to think about baseball through that lens. The individuals doing this work are very qualified and anyway, who cares? The upside of the ‘polarization of the internet’, whatever that means, is that everything’s constantly being peer-reviewed.

But, if it makes you feel better, by all means — chalk the general wrong-ness of math haters up to their being happy and under-appreciated.

Also, seriously? You want me to think about ‘Encounter at Farpoint’? Was that snark — like, people who are good at math watch a lot of ST:TNG, or am I actually supposed to be thinking about ‘Encounter at Farpoint’?

I’m confused.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 18:04:57 +0000

this is so on target…people who are good at math generally only assume that math is the only thing that makes a person intellectually capable, as proven clearly by the insipid, frightened replies to your article. When I was a kid if you excelled at math, english, or any other subject you were considered intelligent. Specialization in English made you no less intelligent than specialization in math. Now, since the popularization of the internet, every person with a middling ability at math, and a decent grasp of technology thinks they are a mechanical engineer. These are mostly lost souls, not Ivy league graduates who attempt to calculate spreadsheets for DPS and project David Wright’s value over the course of five years.
Now if they were actually enjoying themselves that would be one thing, instead they snarkily regurgitate cliche after cliche in a mean spirited critical way to anyone who disagrees with them, diminishing their ability to learn from individuals unlike them. Think the people in the courtroom in “Encounter at Farpoint”. They assume intelligence, but those willing to be humble, admit mistakes, and eschew emotionalism will inevitably be the people who will lead us into the future, as always.
They are grammatists,sophists, fascists. Insecure and afraid of creative thinkers. They have always been, but are many more, sadly, who would rather criticize than teach now. This generation will rapidly find out the bubble of protection and feeling of being special given to them as children will not be there long, are already finding that out, and are taking it out on everyone like the spoiled brats they are.

By: Greg

Greg — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 09:53:15 +0000

How do you remember to breathe?

By: Harold Reynolds Hates On Your Stats, Sabermetrics…Face « Seattle Sportsnet

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:42:54 +0000

[...] Harold challenges the sabermetric way of thinking, and as many of the comments on his post suggest, he is basically greeted by the same anger and ignorance that I was when I wrote a column about the ineffectiveness of sabermetrics. [...]

By: chico

chico — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 14:04:02 +0000

WOW! Two things I’ve noted while reading these comments, #1 sabermetricians have NO sense of humor, #2 sabermetricians may know numbers but they sure can’t spell.

By: Alex

Alex — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 23:10:47 +0000

Your winky man scares me.

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 21:29:19 +0000

>Let’s be honest. If this parody was so badly written, than why have all
>these people taken the time to respond to it? If it sucked, no one would care.

So by this logic, people only talk about that which is well done. A massive chunk of human history, most of reality TV and the whole of Ally McBeal proves this wrong ;-)

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 23:49:55 +0000

Let's be honest. If this parody was so badly written, than why have all these people taken the time to respond to it? If it sucked, no one would care. face.

By: Brian

Brian — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 23:04:13 +0000

I’m not convinced this was parody, actually. Usually the writer of well-conceived parody can spell words correctly, and almost always there’s content which can be interpreted only as a blatantly obvious joke. The Balboni thing doesn’t qualify for me, as Balboni is often mentioned in SABR circles as a ‘three true outcomes’ player. Looks to me like the writer simply missed the point, which seems to hold true for this entire piece. If it was really satire, I’d expect some kind of acknowldegment to that effect. Til then, viewing it as satire is only possible by assuming that no one can be so stupid as to actually be serious about content like this. Sadly, I know many, many people more than stupid enough to refute this :)

By: Rio

Rio — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 21:59:37 +0000

I think it’s funny how many of you guys are getting all butt-hurt because Alex wrote a humor article. You seem truly offended that he made a generalization, then go ahead and make your own broad generalizations about bloggers. Your hypocritical attacks aren’t helping your argument.

Plus, I’m assuming all of you have passed your 10th birthday. You should have learned to not get offended by every little thing. If I acted like you, as a slighly chubby person, I’d get offended everytime someone makes a joke about fat people. Instead, I laugh because, you know, I’m an adult.

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 19:37:03 +0000

Yes, you’ll be insulted by all the people who don’t know what parody is, but it’s hella funny. (Hint: the giveaway is the Steve Balboni thing.)

By: Henry Quinn

Henry Quinn — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 19:12:54 +0000

You’d have to ask Matthew H what an ‘articule’ is — i just cut and pasted.

By: Hambone

Hambone — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 19:05:10 +0000

HAHAHAHAHAHA. Lamest person on the internet.