I'd like to share with you a brief conversation with noted baseball expert my mom. Mom calls me up on the phone and God bless her, she's somehow managed to find where the baseball playoffs are on her Dish Network Guide (TBS? huh?) and happens to be watching the Yankees-Indians game in the background as we talk.
My mom knows nothing about baseball. I was shocked and frankly, charmed, that she had the game on at all.
Mom: Another home run. I thought Wang was supposed to be good.
Me: He's good. Not great, though.
Mom: But he has so many wins.
Me: That's because the Yankees score so many runs for him. Like six a game. (I undershot. It's 7.04. Sorry Mom.)
Mom: Oh. That makes sense. Why is Mussina so bad this year?
Me: (Flabbergasted that my mom even knows who Mike Mussina is. To be fair, she pronounced it MOOSE-in-uh.) Old, I guess.
And there you have it. My mom, a 54-year-old immigrant who probably doesn't know what a double is, can be taught that wins are maybe not the best metric to rate a pitcher. Yet, as we all know, the BBBBBBWAAAAAAAAAA Association of American Americans apparently cannot.
