Rob Neyer, who writes for ESPN.com, is the smartest baseball columnist out there. Mainstream sports coverage mostly stinks. It's interesting to think that I used to only watch the local news growing up. When I watch the local news now, I have to laugh it's so poor. It's easy to forget about the bell curve, but it almost always holds true. The world is dominated by the mediocre. In fact, local news may be a bell curve with its peak closer to the left than the right, in the wrong direction.
But if you're a baseball fan, you should read Rob's column. He's a step ahead of all the other baseball columnists out there, and he's not a baseball journalistic insider. He stands outside the game and looks at it outside in, which is why his column smacks of the truth. He also is a disciple of Bill James, and I love the statistical dissection of baseball. No other sport begs for more mathematical analysis. I remember keeping stat sheets of my own performance back in little league. I can't remember what I
learned about myself. Probably that I was a mediocre player, in the middle of the bell curve.