PB2B

The two articles I chose to analyze fell in the discipline of humanities. I felt as though that would be the best place to start an initial investigation in order to gain general insight into the topic. “Statistics and Baseball Fandom: Sabermetric Infrastructure of Expertise” by Benjamin Burroughs was published in the journal of Games and Culture and dealt with the evolution of a statistical plane of baseball fandom that operates in conjunction with classical viewership. “Traditional Baseball Statistics Still Dominate News Stories” by Joseph Abisaid and William Cassidy sought out to determine if there was an increase in the prevalence of Sabermetric baseball references after the release of the book and film Moneyball, respectively. Both articles made countless references to baseball as popular culture, and therefore made it easy to use the two in comparison.

The second article by Abisaid and Cassidy was definitely the more empirical of the two, for example there were several references to statistical approaches in their methodology (i.e. Standard Deviation, interceder reliability, one-way ANOVA models, etc.) which were discussed in the Methods section of the essay. Burroughs, on the other hand, was attempting to prove something that cannot easily be described, ironically; this lead to an article that felt at times too subjective to gain any real evidence from. But where Burroughs lacked in empirical data, he made up for in delving into the history of Sabermetrics and the Sabermetric community which he aptly named “Saberfans”. Burrough’s view on the statistical plane of baseball also gave interesting commentary on the data driven age that we find ourselves in today and contained great quotes (some serious, some funny) that I plan on using in crafting a thoughtful proposal.

By the end of each article, the authors gave strong conculsions as to what their research helped to shed light on. Abisaid and Williams concluded that there had in fact been a relationship between the quantity of Sabermetric baseball terminology that was discussed in newspapers since the release of the title Moneyball. The more prominent jump in the amount of references ended up occurring after the release of the film as opposed to the book, however, nonetheless, it was inspiring to see how Sabermetrics is increasing in popularity in mainstream media. Similarly, Burroughs closed by remarking that Saberfans are beginning to pave the way for new baseball infrastructure, not just in how the game is viewed, but at the front office and management level.

The two essays both fall under the category of scholarly, peer-reviewed journal articles, however in construction they differ pretty greatly. Both pieces are broken down into various subsections, but initially start out with an abstract giving an overview of the topic at hand. In the abstract, specifically, both articles make reference to an apparent statistical revolution taking place in the sport which shows me as an aspiring researcher that there should be information out there on the topic.

Through the use of sources and references, both articles are able to dive deep into commentary while also providing a framework for their reasoning. The articles both base their research off of proven models and theories. Burroughs uses the work of Halverson and Halverson’s planar 2D model of Baseball Fandom, and his work takes this thought process further with the addition of the Statistical Plane which overlaps with Fantasy Fandom (fantasy sports), as well as traditional fan activity. Burroughs use of this model affords him the opportunity to discuss how fans embed themselves in a sport/activity, without having to dive in too deeply to statistical algorithms or complex models.

As previously discussed, it was my opinion that Abisaid and William’s approach to their research was more empirical, in nature and comparison. This could be due to the fact that their research question called for a more quantitative answer. The researchers went into detail about their methodology which, for me, was quite interesting. I enjoyed reading about their coding process for acquiring the number of average references per article throughout a specific period of time. Coincidentally, their research process was fairly similar to that of Howard, Serviss and Rodrigue’s work on patch-writing. Their empirical methodology afforded them the opportunity to comment on the findings of their research objectively, however their results section was laden with various statistical references that required some additional research on my part. In a rhetorical context, this statical jargon constrained them by only being able to parlay their results to a community that understands the complexities of statistical research.

Although the two articles differ in many aspects of the research process, they both provide a sound basis for starting my research on Sabermetrics. Burroughs work on the Statistical Plane of Fandom gave me insight as to the bigger picture of the statistical revolution occurring in baseball. His work touched on the triumphs and critiques of the trend, while at the same time employing specific popular culture examples in conjuncture with larger cultural trends that are currently being viewed and discussed at a macro level. Abisaid and Williams statistical approach to determine the prevalence of Sabermetric statistics in newspapers showed how the use of statistics, algorithms, and models can help to answer questions that at first ponder seem unachievable. Both articles serve as a metaphor for the larger picture of Sabermetrics because they attempt to objectify the intangible aspects of popular culture.