OK…THIS is weird…
So I’m eating dinner tonight, right, and I’m perusing the sports page casually. For some reason unknown reason, I allow my eyes to linger over the standings of the Frontier (Baseball) League, an independent league featuring a team from Washington, PA (a little south of here) named the (I’m not making this up) “Wild Things”. Anyhoo, here’s where it gets weird…there are five teams in the twelve-team league that are not named for individual cities; they rather have generic “regional” names: “Ohio Valley”, “River City”, “Gateway”, “Windy City”, and “Mid-Missouri”. The other seven teams are named for individual cities. Here comes the weirdness: all seven teams named after individual cities have winning records; all five teams named regionally have losing records.
That’s weird.
I’m thinking, is there something about a team’s close identity with a particular, named community that inspires it to play better? Do “generically-named” teams suffer from some type of identity crisis, not feeling quite so comfortably rooted in a given community that their on-field performance is reflective of this? And more importantly:
Is there a government grant available to me to study this incredible phenomenon???
This phrase comes from the 1978 "Jonestown massacre" in which most members of the Peoples Temple cult, blindly following their leader Jim Jones, committed suicide by drinking cyanide-laced Kool-Aid.
Osborne: A Contrarian's Guide to Knowing God
Schlossberg: Idols For Destruction
9 Responses to “OK…THIS is weird…”
Which is weirder: the winning records of the Frontier League or the fact that you were compelled enough to comment on them? Dude, you need cable.
Don ~ Aug 15, 2005 at 4:28 pm
Byron, when you get the G-grant, maybe you could do an additional study on the California/Anaheim/Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim!
Mark Merritt ~ Aug 15, 2005 at 5:40 pm
I agree with Don.
My home town of Portsmouth Ohio used to have a Frontier team and they had a losing record. I don’t know about a government grant but I think you can avoid cable awhile longer by following the Frontier league daily. And I really want to know: what are the home and away records of those teams with low self-esteems?
Warren throckmorton ~ Aug 15, 2005 at 9:00 pm
It’s pretty obvious that most of us should GET LIVES…
Byron ~ Aug 16, 2005 at 10:48 am
At last, wisdom speaks!
Warren throckmorton ~ Aug 16, 2005 at 9:20 pm
Well, when you request the grant, go for one from a specific city. Don’t go for the “West Regional Mini-Grant Association.” They will only half-heartedly support you. (Still buckin’ for that Snarky Award. heh)
Paula ~ Aug 18, 2005 at 7:47 pm
Don’t tempt me! I was addicted to following Independent League Baseball. Every night I would zone out with the sports page, wasting my time chasing down trivial statistics and pondering meaningless congruencies. Now, thankfully, I have given up this useless endeavor and spend my evenings with my family watching television. The Discovery Channel and History Channel are excellent tools to learn more about the world. Now you having me considering throwing it away to go back to following my favorite team: the Wild Things. Thanks alot.
Sam ~ Aug 19, 2005 at 12:23 am
Deep breaths now, Sam…you HAVE a life; you HAVE a life; you HAVE a life, and it’s NOT independent league baseball. Go back to your family and watch the Discovery Channel.
Byron ~ Aug 19, 2005 at 9:26 pm
Thanks, Paula, I’ll keep it in mind as I go for the grant…
Byron ~ Aug 20, 2005 at 10:30 am