Murray Chass Has No Use For Your Newfangled Statistics

In an amazing display of willful ignorance of his trade, New York Times writer Murray Chass penned a condescending take on those who take the study of baseball a little more seriously than simply knowing a guy's ERA and batting average:

I receive a daily e-mail message from Baseball Prospectus, an electronic publication filled with articles and information about statistics, mostly statistics that only stats mongers can love.

To me, VORP epitomized the new-age nonsense. For the longest time, I had no idea what VORP meant and didn't care enough to go to any great lengths to find out. I asked some colleagues whose work I respect, and they didn't know what it meant either.

Finally, not long ago, I came across VORP spelled out. It stands for value over replacement player. How thrilling. How absurd. Value over replacement player. Don't ask what it means. I don't know.

I suppose that if stats mongers want to sit at their computers and play with these things all day long, that's their prerogative. But their attempt to introduce these new-age statistics into the game threatens to undermine most fans' enjoyment of baseball and the human factor therein.

People play baseball. Numbers don't.

I'm actually impressed at the level of public disdain Chass shows to not only his readers but also his profession. Chass is paid to think about baseball, yet he's seemingly proud of the fact that his understanding of the game hasn't advanced past what he learned by the third grade. Imagine a writer in the business section outright refusing to acknowledge a new economic theory, or someone in the health section not giving creedence to the latest medical breakthrough simply because he doesn't want to learn anything new.

Now, I'm sure plenty of you are firmly in Chass' camp, and if you are I have no quarrel with you, because a fan should be able to choose how they want to enjoy a game. But if you're paid to write about the game, to offer an opinion that is more educated than what someone can hear from just another blowhard at the local bar, well, I think there's an inherent responsibility to stay abreast of what other intelligent people are saying in your field of work, even if it's not the type of thing that you choose to write about. The only thing these "new-age statistics" threaten is the relevancy of sports writers content to live with tunnel vision.

Needless to say, the guys at Fire Joe Morgan had a field day with this one, and Nate Silver of Baseball Prospectus offered a thoughtful response of his own, extending an invitation to catch a game with Chass sometime this season to discuss the different ways they each enjoy the game. I hope Chass takes him up on the offer, though from the sounds of it I doubt he can be bothered.