It's the Game

I've been reading Basketball Prospectus and KenPom's blog and the stuff they crank out is amazing. The minuatie and the numbers they breakdown and "simplify" is quite remarkable. I've learned a lot and watch games differently because of it...but...

About 2002 I started reading Bill James and Rob Neyer and began to eschew the "old skool" rhetoric that Joe Morgan spouted at me every Sunday night as if I was somehow above the mubojumbo intended for the "average" Joe Beer Gut. I'd go to games and scoff at the jumbotron/scoreboard/monstorsity of gluttony at dated things like batting average and RBI. Where was the OPS or OBP?

Then I started not like going to games or watching games because I was listening to what I thought was nonsense as the announcers or fans in seats around me prattled on about things like "grit" or the importance of "small ball". The game was almost secondary at this point. Then the Brewers went to the playoffs and I slapped myself in the face and said, look what you missed, you asshat. Instead of enjoying a run, I was bitching about Corey Hart's OBP and Dale Sveum wasting outs. IT'S THE GAME! The camaraderie of the crowd, friends, the escapism from the mundane ritual that life can become at times.

I watched Villanova and Syracuse last night and found myself repeating the same mistakes I made as a baseball fan. Brian asked me to blog last year as we exchanged emails mid-season about Kentucky and I got back into college basketball after sort of being pretty casual about it for a while (Duke wins title, coincidence?). Of course, I jumped in feet first and started devouring all the analysis I could since that HAD to make a smarter or better fan. And then I thought more about my favorite games from my time watching college basketball (Sales reps have LOTS of free time). The games that stand out, were the games that were always part of some larger experience.

Some larger, usually shared experience. I remember games and I remember who I was with, where, when, hell, weather and other worthless points. And isn't that what sports should be? An escape into an experience? I respect the analysis, the breakdown but in the end, it's the game that brings people together and sometimes binds us longer than we'd probably ever imagine.

It's the game. And this game is pretty awesome to just sit back and watch and enjoy the wild ride.