Rules and Myth

As an expanding and prosperous business, MLB represents the epitome of what baseball is.  It is a game with a familiar atmosphere and with familiar numbers.  The myth of baseball is created through these facets of the game, each individual player and coach add to this, but what happens when parts of the game are manipulated and changed.  One of the proposed changes to the upcoming MLB season is the addition of one more wild card spot.

            A new wild card spot represents a chance, a chance for teams to get into the playoffs when a game or so would normally leave them out.  But, this extra game means so much more to baseball then just having an extra chance to move into the world series.  It would seemingly create a more mythologized situation in the mind of the patrons.  The myth would undoubtedly be fantastical if the team were to be the winning underdog, but it would not mean as much if the original post league were to remain the same. 

            Although the rules often take a backseat, they are the basis of any baseball myth.  Without the rules there to dictate what could happen, nothing would happen.  But, with the addition of more and more rules, it leaves room for more and more things to happen, and therefore more to be mythologized. 

            Baseball is about the myth, it is what makes it different and unique, when we can speculate and dissect every aspect of the game, and then have anomalies to make us excited to tune in everyday, it is a constant story.  But the addition of some rules and regulations detract from the myth of baseball, by either enabling it, such as this, or destroying it.  Myth will always be apart of the game, it is difficult then to determine when enough is enough, and when the game as evolved enough to keep the myth alive during every season.

             

Chew On This

Hardballtalk's post on the facial surgery that Hall of Famer, Tony Gwynn went under can seem like an incident more isolated to baseballs view on harmful substances, but it is in fact much more, this has a direct relation to the change in views (or lack thereof) on baseball statistics.

There was a time when tobacco products were believed to have little adverse effects on a human’s well-being.  Sure, you may get some coughs or do some nerve damage but no one really thought much of it.  That was back in the day, before advances in modern science had revealed just how harmful they are, but we still seem to use these substances.

Now I am not the biggest fan of trying to make myself sick, and I am not the biggest fan of losing either.  So then, why do scouts not listen to times and change their technique.  They have their job because they need to find the player that wins, not because they do well at following what is normal.  This is synonymous with the old-timer scouts in Moneyball; it is something that has been done in the past in baseball, so it is obviously right. Obviously not. The scouts inability to change to the times and conform to a more accurate and efficient way of scouting is just as cancerous to the prosperity of baseball.

When a pretty face and potential mean more than a solid OPS clearly there is a problem either in the talent pool or in the office.  Since there is potentially a limitless talent pool, the fault is on the scouts. There is surely talent left untouched, talent left to rot and never allowed to flower, it is an epidemic that is stopping baseball from becoming more.

The current scouting method from statistics is becoming more and more popular; the appeal has spread through more and more organizations.  However, certain we may be about tobacco having its health problems, we are also certain about the positive effects real statistics can have on showing a players talent. Unfortunately, the malignant cancer that the Tony Gwynn had has the potential to spread to more places. However, thankfully, his operation went well and it was stopped.  Hopefully baseball associations and scouts can do the same and continue to eradicate this less effective way of scouting players, so that baseball does not solely become about potential and a pretty face.

Tony Gwynn had facial nerve removed in 14-hour surgery for cancerous tumor

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Hell ya Baseball! Go Rox!