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Don't dwell on stats; enjoy the games

| October 23, 2018 12:41 AM

I’ve never been overwhelmed by statistics.

Oh, there are times when some numbers are fun.

For instance, I traveled for years covering the Kansas City Royals — and was around for many of Hall of Famer George Brett’s legendary performances.

My favorite Brett moment, though, occurred when he coined a term that will live forever in baseball history ...

“The Mendoza Line.”

George was never afraid to say whatever came to mind, and he used that phrase in an interview with ESPN’s Chris Berman.

The reference was to journeyman shortstop Mario Mendoza, who played nine years for four teams in the big leagues, and whose batting average always seemed to hover right around .200.

Brett got off to a slow start one season and he told Berman, “I’m lucky that I haven’t sunk below the Mendoza Line.”

From that point forward, poor Mario has been immortalized as a symbol of batting futility.

SO, YEAH, there are numbers I’ve enjoyed.

Wayne Gretzky racking up 92 goals and 120 assists for 212 points for the Edmonton Oilers in 1981-82 ...

That one catches my eye.

Hockey players who average a point per game are perennial all-stars. Gretzky played 1,487 games in his NHL career and tallied 2,857 points — numbers that look like tracking weekly flights in and out of Chicago.

When your nickname is “The Great One” and no one wonders who that might be ...

Pretty cool.

Unfortunately, stat geeks with computers in hand have turned statistics into a separate sport.

Fantasy leagues live off numbers instead of wins and losses, which is why I never join one.

The most maniacal of all are the stat-crunchers who have created so many esoteric figures in baseball that you have to be a CPA to understand what the hell they’re talking about.

THE MADNESS was started by Bill James, a professor at the University of Kansas who decided he could unlock all of baseball’s secrets with only the use of numbers.

James now has thousands of disciples (in multiple sports) who can rattle off statistics with bizarre sets of letters – and supposedly tell you that some particular pitcher will induce an unusually high percentage of ground balls to third on windy days at Wrigley Field.

My pal Jeff Flanagan, who now covers the Royals for MLB.com, detests these weird numbers as much as I do, and recently he sent me a headline from humor web site “The Onion.”

It read: “Baseball Statisticians Unveil New Analytics Model Measuring Precise Amount of Joy They Suck from the Game.”

These are people who look at a guy who drove in 144 runs in a season and will tell you that he actually had a poor year, because ...

Blah, blah, blah.

THERE ARE some things in sports that you cannot do accidentally — winning 18 major golf titles, catching 197 TD passes like Jerry Rice, etc.

And true baseball junkies know that hitting a combined .300 over a long career is one of them.

The stat freaks actually can point to someone with a lifetime average of .307 and insist he really couldn’t hit.

I’m sorry, but like Flanagan (and some savvy baseball execs) I have a different system: the eye test.

Will this player help you win?

Longtime manager Whitey Herzog once concluded a dugout monologue with this bit of wisdom ...

“If you can’t look out there and see who can play — and who’s really crap — you should go watch a 100-meter dash.

“The finish line will make your life easier.”

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Steve Cameron is a columnist for The Press.

A Brand New Day appears from Wednesday through Saturday each week. Steve’s sports column runs on Tuesday.

Email: scameron@cdapress.com

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Twitter: @BrandNewDayCDA