Fandom. The end of the season.

I am a realist. A lot of baseball writers would call me an idiot for caring way too much about statistical analysis of the game. But, I am a fan at heart. I am not a statistician who just tries to make baseball a game of numbers. It actually offends me harshly when people who write for huge newspapers (but really, newspapers will be gone in the next few years) and Sports Illustrated, and other large publications use their position to discount what people like me have to say. I am in fact just someone who spends hours and hours trying to understand a game that I truly love. The same game that baseball writers all around the country speak about. I choose to do so by reading about and understanding different statistics.

I grew up looking at RBI, and BA, and assuming that the people who had the highest numbers in these stats were the best players. I have now learned that this is not the truth, because newer (better) statistics are able to separate what certain players contribute without their teammates.

Some people will say that this takes away from the team aspect of the game. That it detracts from the nature of the game and doesn't account for humanistic qualities. Certainly I disagree to this notion.

I have watched at least 100 of the Marlins games this season. I have watched countless other games that do not include my favorite team. I love baseball. Sports fans that I know and love often don't understand the almost chaotic way that I follow the sport. However there is an attack on anyone who would rather use advanced statistics over traditional ones. Many of the more palatable baseball writers that I read have obviously made peace with this. However I have a hard time with people accusing anyone who loves learning about the game in a different way than them of caring only about numbers and not the game.

This brings me to the Marlins. They are outplaying their pyth record (or assumed record because of runs scored vs. runs against, which is proven a better predictor of actual record) by quite a bit. They have locked up a winning record and are going to finish behind the Phillies and Mets, but not that far back considering pre-season projections. However, I love it. I am not some stat freak who would rather see the teams with the most predictable seasons always win. There is luck involved in a 162 games season. There is clutch hitting invloved. However, clutch hitting is not (although many writers will disagree) a repeatable skill.

I am still happy with our season. We played hard. We improved our defense somewhat. We hit the ball hard. Our rotation looks very promising if it is somewhat capable of staying healthy. A winning season was not expected but yet we still found a way to do so, meaning that all my watching had a pretty positive result total. This Marlins team has provided a ton of great moments. From Amezega's homerun fresh off a long rain delay to give us the lead, to Hanley's huge season that will go mostly overlooked, to Uggla looking horrible in teh All-Star games, it will be remembered fondly.

How it won't be remembered is just as a list of numbers. Neither will the live games I was able to watch against Tampa Bay with friends. Neither will be the countless hours I have spent reading Rob Neyer, Baseball Prospectus, The Hardball Times, and other intelligent baseball sites. I wish just one baseball writer of the BBWAA would read this to learn what I mean.