In Defense of Baseball Stats
I recently had dinner with a new friend, someone I’d had my eye on during the fall quarter but hadn’t found the space or time to get to know. While getting ready for our friend date, I ran through what we could talk about in my head: I knew that she had worked internationally, that we had some similar queries about “social innovation,” that she wore great boots and had this generous laugh whose object I wanted to be. I didn’t know much more. Why was that? I realized it was because, at the GSB, it’s uncool — even looked down upon — to discuss “Baseball Stats.”
“Baseball Stats” is shorthand for your simple figures — how old you are, where and when you went to college, what you did prior to business school, and where you’re from. Asking questions to discover this information is seen as lazy, as barriers to forming meaningful friendships. But, as I walked to meet my classmate, it dawned on me that I disagree with this attitude towards Baseball Stats.
Let me get this straight: I am surrounded by 417 new faces, and yet I am supposed to drill down to their depths without asking what they chose to do for over half their waking hours for their adult lives? Is it fair to judge me as shallow if I ask someone what brought her here, what she filled her brain with from ages 18–22, and about the geographic environment that largely shaped who she is today?
And that’s what brings me here, typing this, to you: my Defense of Baseball Stats.
Knowing Baseball Stats gives me the basis for my next questions. Questions through which I have discovered my peer’s values and beliefs regarding work. Or about their mom, whose dedication and sacrifice drives them forward. Or about their high school experience, which inspires their passion for educational equity. Sure, my follow-up questions are sometimes a bit too heavy. It’s scary to push through the rudimentary information and ask that next question. But, for me, Baseball Stats pave the way to deeper questions, which, in turn, have brought me incredibly fulfilling relationships. I don’t think my closest GSB friends and I would have found each other without Baseball Stats.
One big reason for the antagonism towards Baseball Stats is that they can facilitate stereotyping. It is easier to create short circuits using the answers we receive to Baseball Stat questions. So, yes: if we use Baseball Stats to make assumptions about our classmates, we are better off without such questions. Baseball Stats are useful primarily when they go hand-in-hand with active curiosity. By themselves, they comprise a fast track to unfairly pigeonholing others. On the flip side, putting yourself at risk of being pigeonholed by others can also be scary. So, what if, due to our fear of being vulnerable, we scorn the very thing that makes vulnerability possible in the first place?
Talking (and by that, I mean actively engaging) Baseball Stats is worlds better than talking about the mundane. Baseball Stats can give us a more dynamic sense of a person than talking about his or her long weekend plans or the seemingly endless rain or sun. So, let’s call a spade a spade: conversations about the weather or weekend plans are worse than talking about Baseball Stats.
My Baseball Stats are important to me. From the stats that I had no control over to those I chose — these facts shape me. Faulkner said, “the past isn’t dead, it’s not even the past.” You are your past. You are, in powerful ways, your Baseball Stats. So, tell me your Baseball Stats, and I’ll tell you mine. Starting now.
