The Proper Way of Looking at Things

When arguing about sports, there's no better comeback than the scoreboard. Red Sox fans think the Pirates suck and the sexual preferences of Andrew McCutchen (he's on my fantasy team)? Well, look at the scoreboard, buddy. Pirates almost swept the Sox this past weekend. Scoreboard.

Mother-effing scoreboard.

But really? I mean, sure the Pirates won, but they're not really better than the Sox, right? I mean, the Sox are 13 games above .500 and are a lock to make the playoffs. The Pirates are one game over .500 and have just a good a chance of making the playoffs as the Mets (don't laugh, my Mets are 39-39, 4.5 games back of the NL wild card).

Obviously, the answer is sample size. Here is the argument presented for the recently completed NHL playoffs. Was Boston really the best team in the NHL for the 2010-2011 season. Probably not, as JLikens of Objective NHL reasons out in the linked post.

In fact, through the beauty of statistic simulations, he shows that the best team wins the championship only 22% of the time. Now, keep in mind, this isn't the NFL where it's a series of one-game, do-or-die games. This is the NHL, where they play 82 regular season games, then four seven-game series to overcome the variability inherent in a probabilistic endeavors.

I'm guessing the numbers for Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association will be similar. I'm guessing the numbers for the National Football League, the World Cup, and other sports are worse.

Ultimately, that's the beauty of sports. The best team doesn't always win. In fact, the best team doesn't even usually win. And that's what keeps Mets fans coming back for more.

In any case, the article is a fantastic read. I wholeheartedly recommend it.