The First Rule of being a Baseball Aficionado

My co-writer and I recently decided that we have a deeper knowledge than the typical fan. This is probably true since we focus primarily on baseball and believe football to be an inferior sport. we also take time to read many articles and books on the sport in order to expand our knowledge. Every fan in baseball needs to understand the game more than fans in other sports, but they don’t always understand every move a manager or team executive makes. While we know we aren’t smart enough to make these moves we can see the logic behind them. Therefore the first rule of being a baseball aficionado is to understand that you don’t know more than the people running baseball teams.


I am convinced that this is one of the main problems with today’s sports media. Guys like John Heyman or Ken Rosenthal believe what they think is the only way to think. That if they think a team should make a move and then they don’t they can’t understand the logic behind it. John Heyman didn’t understand why the Nationals would resign Dmitri Young. The answer is probably that they know something he doesn’t. He doesn’t have a working knowledge of the trades that were discussed or the medical reports on Nick Johnson. Jon Heyman also doesn’t know how Dmitri is with his teammates, but because Jon Heyman has an opinion on Dmitri Young as an out of shape, over the hill player he then thinks it is a bad move. Jon Heyman believes his opinions to be facts, and that if he ran a team they would be the greatest thing ever.


Normal fans may be smart, but they sometimes outsmart themselves. Prospects are nice, but they aren’t everything. Earlier this season the Braves traded Jarrod Saltalamacchia for Mark Teixeira, and now that the Braves are on a cold streak some fans are concerned about the move. They are part of the culture were anything new is exciting. Even though the Braves have a young catcher in Brian McCann some fans want to see the hot new thing stick around. The logic behind the move is correct. You trade from a strength to fill a weakness. The Braves needed a good slugging first baseman and they got it in Teixeira. What the Braves didn’t need was another young catcher that would be better off getting to play instead of sitting on the bench behind another young catcher. These fans made the error of assuming they knew more about baseball than the people running the team.


Looking at the past there are many moves that puzzled fans at first. The trade of Lou Brock to the Cardinals for 18 game winner Brogilio confused the media and the fans. The fans felt that Brogilio was an established star and that the Cardinals were trading for an outfielder that would never be any good. As time went on Lou Brock became a force to be reckoned with on the bases and at the plate as well as a good defensive outfielder. As for Brogilio, not much was heard from him after them. At the time of the trade some in the media called it one of the worst trades ever. They were right, but not for the reasons they thought. Bing Devine knew more about running a baseball team than sportswriters, but they assumed that they were in fact the ones with the deeper knowledge.


Knowing your limits is important in any area in life. Knowing that there will always be someone smarter, and knowing that there is always more to learn is the first step to learning. If one presumes they know everything then they will not seek further knowledge. In order to be a baseball aficionado one must first know that there is still more to be learned, and the ones that know what we desire to learn are the ones that get to run the teams.