Real Fans

I can't begin to explain to y'all how excited I was to write this post. I do my best writing when I feel like I have important stuff to say. Anyway, I'm driving back to my parents' apartment today and I'm listening to the Michael Kay Show after the Yankees' victory. Anyone who was watching could tell you how exciting it was, how they came back to win after being down 6 - 2 with two outs in the ninth inning and nobody on base. Solo home run, single, walk, single, single, wild pitch, and all of a sudden Alex Rodriguez can win the game with a single to the outfield. And then he hits a walk off home run and they win 8 - 6. Now for anyone who hasn't been paying attention for the past year and a half, if you were to ask any Yankee fan how they feel about Alex Rodriguez and his $25,000,000 per year salary, 90% of them will tell you that he's a scrub; for that much money he should hit 60 home runs and drive in 150, and hit .330. Anything less is inexcusable, especially in the playoffs, where that same percentage of Yankee fans will swear on their grandfather's season tickets that he's never done anything of value. Az basically, the guy was screwed; if he does well, that's what he's supposed to be doing and he's not worthy of praise, but if he sucks a fat one, then he gets booed out of town. Now, all of a sudden, he's the hottest athlete on the planet, and he can't help but hit a home run every day. Seriously, at the rate he's going, he's on pace to hit .351, with 116 home runs, 301 RBI, 197 runs scored, 231 hits, an on base percentage of .418, 12 stolen bases, and a .965 slugging percentage. Obviously, he won't be able to keep up with this torrid pace, but that's not the point. The point is, now that he's succeeding, you have all these Yankee fans coming out of the woodwork and saying things like "oh, I was always defending A-Rod, but none of you cared! I'm a real fan; I don't boo our own players." But where the hell were all of you last year when he got booed every time he got up to the plate? When you listened to the radio last year you never heard from any of his defenders, only from his attackers? How dare you all call yourself real Yankee fans! I can't say I'm ashamed because chas v'chalilah, I would never even attempt to convince anyone that I supported the Yankees. And you know what? This is why. The average fan couldn't give a crap about the players, because they simply don't know a damn thing. Like I said earlier, "Anything less is inexcusable, especially in the playoffs, where that same percentage of Yankee fans will swear on their grandfather's season tickets that he's never done anything of value." Those 90% have no idea that in his post-season career in 132 at-bats, he's hit .280 with 6 home runs, 16 RBI, 19 runs scored, 4 stolen bases, a .375 on base percentage, and a .485 slugging percentage. These are highly respectable numbers for such a small sample size. Wanna hear what else I hate? A guy called in to the Michael Kay Show saying that the Mets fans should also be embarrassed, because they did the same thing with Carlos Beltran in his first year, when he only hit 15 home runs and 79 RBI. To set the record straight, these two situations are completely, totally different. Carlos Beltran had essentially done nothing in his career except have a nice post-season the year before the Mets signed him. He stunk in his first year in New York, az he got booed. But Alex Rodriguez WAS THE FREAKIN MVP IN 2005!!!!! WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE THAT YOU CAN BOO HIM THE FOLLOWING YEAR?!!!!!! I'm about to call out my roommate, which isn't really fair, but I'll do it anyway. We're sitting in the palace watching baseball, and someone asked us what the most important statistic in baseball is, to which my roommate responded, "batting average." I almost had a seizure. I asked him what the difference is between a .280 hitter and a .320 hitter. You guys know what the difference is? Let me show you. Last year, both Garret Anderson and Carlos Guillen had 543 at-bats. For the average everyday player, this seems to be a fairly pedestrian amount. Garret Anderson hit .280, and Guillen hit .320. Want to know how many more hits Guillen had than Anderson? 22. 22! That's roughly one more hit every 7.5 games. That's roughly 3.5 more hits per month. How is .320 hall of fame material, and .280 isn't? All you fans out there should try to learn more about the game of baseball. Baseball is a dynamic sport that changes all the time. Each and every day, people are coming up with new ways of analyzing the game so that we can get a more complete understanding of how it works. Do yourselves a favor; go to baseballprospectus.com and look up some players. If you're really feeling frisky, sign up to be a member at baseball prospectus for a month so you can get access to players' PECOTA cards. Learn what VORP, WARP3, and FRAA mean. Baseball is a beautiful game, and it's a shame that people are missing out.