Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Got Milk?
Carson Cistulli is one of the great baseball writers. He wrote a fanstastic piece, and he perfectly understood what I tried to say earlier when he said:
We have, in Carroll and Tango’s respective comments, a couple of ways to measure the success of the sabermetric project. The quality of, and loyalty to, the ideas: that’s one criterion. The degree to which the general public begins to utilize advanced stats: that’s another, maybe.
Along comes Ken Arneson with his take:
“The dairy industry tried for 20 years to convince you that milk was good for you…and the sales were going like this (downwards). Then they tried “Got Milkâ€? and the sales have gone like this (upwards). “Got Milkâ€? doesn’t even talk about the product. In fact, it focuses on the absence of the product. “–Steve Jobs
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Nonetheless, the questions remain. What are the core emotional values of sabermetrics? What are sabermetricians committed to in their souls? Once you’ve answered those questions, then you start formulating a way to make sabermetrics more mainstream and popular. So, baseball fans: Got Facts?
That’s an excellent way to put it. If your purpose is to sell sabermetrics to the mainstream, you are not going to do it my way, which is selling it one person at a time. And you are not going to do it by packaging it with something shiny, that when you open the box it will, in due time, fail you. All you can do is make it something a part of you, something indispensable.
I don’t know about you guys, but I spend most of my non-professional surfing time reading about baseball, hockey, and analysis. So, trying to tie it back to Ken’s point about Steve Jobs, what visceral reaction do you get?
“Got ideas?”
“Got imagination?”
“Got inspiration?”
“Got critical thinking?”
“Got creativity?”
That one. That last one. That’s what I think this is. Critical thinking and finding creative solutions that are grounded in logic and reasonableness. Creativity.
My kid has legos and trains, and I have this. (Though he has way more fun than I do.)
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