Stats Geek From an Early Age

There is no doubt MLB is looking for a baseball nut and I am well aware there are countless millions of baseball nuts out there. One might ask what sets me apart. The answer is that I am just a bit nuttier than most other baseball fans and I have been that way for as long as I remember.

When I was a kid my favorite subject was math. I loved it until right around the time we hit the quadratic formula. Now I know the real reason I like math is I like it when numbers tell me something. In work and school settings, I have never minded being the one that breaks down the numbers because it helps me tell a story.

Looking at box scores in the morning paper was always a highlight to my morning. As soon as I discovered what those numbers meant, I began to read the paper every day at breakfast before school.

I'm sure I wasn't the only kid who did that, but I took it a step further. When I played by myself, I would head over to my next door neighbor's yard (dad's garden always got in the way in my yard) and I pretended I was all the players in the game. I tossed the ball and hit, then ran around the base paths. (These games usually ended with a Cincinnati Reds victory.) After each at bat I recorded the result of the "play" into a notebook and I have no doubt I filled a few of these with mock box scores of the games that went on inside my head.

I did the same thing with video games long before the season mode captured stats. Then I wrote a quick summary of the game. Here is one of the box scores from a Game Gear game at the end of a fine season.



Yes, you're darn right that Ron Gant and Barry Larkin have averages well above .400, Bret Boone has 24 triples on the season and John Smiley just moved to 13-0. If anyone can get a hold of my Game Gear and the Frank Thomas Big Hurt Baseball game, you can use my password to take over a season headed to the playoffs.