Entry 1.18.21

If you listen to early entries of The Blog, you might confirm that my voice has changed a little bit. I believe that this is a direct result of the blog experiment thus far.

Trend Watch: sports precision

The MLB

During a statistics class in college I undertook a project to track trends within the MLB, the conclusion being that the game is getting more boring, statistically. Fewer and fewer “exciting” plays are happening as specialists develop due to the evolution of the game’s technology and training methods.

The relative advances in the performance of pitchers and batters have outpaced those advances in the performance of other positions, leaving bases empty. Pitchers are striking out more batters and succeeding at keeping their bases relatively empty. Batters are swinging for the fence much more often, and with good results (home runs make up a greater percentage of points scored than ever). Though moments of group action do occur, their occurrence has decreased in comparison to the showdown at home plate (one close exception is the catcher, who is also at home plate). The game has shifted into a duel between pitcher and batter. Home runs and strikeouts dominate gameplay and, consequently, media.

What can this tell us about humans and the games we play? The first conclusion I draw is that the degree of advancement might be positively correlated to the player’s involvement in the game (pitcher scores high; right-fielder scores low). The second conclusion is the implications that this has for an individual’s personal brand and the media which it can be applied to (hint: the money is limitless).

Though I haven’t actively collected data on the MLB in years, I still see this trend when I tune in to sports and sports news today.

The NBA

James Harden changed the NBA when he arrived at the Houston Rockets in 2012. His unabashed style of “threes and frees” takes more risky shots and attempts to draw fouls for free throws. In his first year, Harden led the Rockets to attempt threes for 35% of their total shots, up from less than 25% before his signing. Within 5 years this percentage would settle just above 50%, a ratio “unthinkable a decade earlier.” This assault on the style of gameplay has caused the NBA to amend the structure and rules of the league. By pushing the limits with this aggressive yet high-scoring and exciting style of gameplay Harden has changed the game.

I’ve considered the baseball example for years but was recently alerted to the NBA statistic. This trend illustrates how our human sports are changing as we do. This concept of change is not new, but each instance of change is unique and demands attention.

A comment about low-scoring sports

Soccer I have neither created theories nor collected data on, mainly due to my unfamiliarity with technical parts of the sport. I imagine that the sport (and surrounding media) have inflated the fame of goalies and strikers, both due to their close relationship to “exciting” (dopamine-producing) moments of the game.

I would assume much the same thing about hockey, an equally low-scoring game in comparison to something like basketball, but as filled with continuous action.

Feedback Loops

An evolution of my gameplay has been to more aggressively develop and analyze feedback loops. This web log, for example, provides structure to the podcast you’re listening to right now. I would say that this is a script, but it works more like a guide during this spoken word exposee. As alluded to in the introduction to this entry, The Blog is not merely a place to store/share information; it is process which I have selected as a feedback loop for continual improvement.

Foremost of these is the new system of data evaluation. Through layers of review and commentary in the publishing cycle, I ingest new information. By sharing the most interesting of those thoughts in writing The Blog, I build a community to establish a feedback loop. The act of recording refreshes the active memory and further develops ideas as they are formed through spoken word. Under review, the feedback from the recording allows me to perfect speech patterns and better sculpt passages in writing.

All of these instance have been designed so that they might provide feedback, and the process seems to be working well.

A note about art

I have been doing it less and the effects are obvious. These sessions are a balm against depressive troughs and provide joy where there was only despair. Though current events are demanding my time and attention more than ever, this form must continue to be pursued.