Educating Twitter: Batting Average? Really?

Propaganda is a hell of a drug.

Take any statement or position, no matter how false or outright unbelievable, package it in the most appealing way possible and repeat it often enough, and loudly enough, and you will absolutely convince some people that it’s true. Works like a charm.

For a while, cigarette companies used to advertise that doctors recommended their brand because they were the “healthy cigarettes,” and some people actually believed that. Remember when we were told that wearing a magnetic bracelet will improve your circulation, or that you will catch a cold if you don’t wear a coat in cold weather, or that using your cell phone while pumping gas will cause the pump to explode? A lot of people believed those, too. They still do, in fact. Hell, a couple of months ago we were led to believe that New Jersey was under a systemic attack by drones launched from an Iranian mothership in the Atlantic Ocean, and people bought it.

Baloney. All of it. Pure, grade A, unfiltered crapola. And yet there are people walking around today who believe every bit of it. That’s the power of propaganda.

And we’ve been fed a similar amount of propaganda about baseball over the years. You can probably recite a few bits. Pitchers who pitch to the score. The value of sacrifice bunts. Joe DiMaggio being “the greatest living ballplayer.” Batting your best hitter third in the order. Saving your best reliever to start the ninth inning with a lead instead of using them to get out of a jam in the sixth or seventh. Guys who “just know how to win.” Basically everything to do with pitcher wins.

And, of course, the granddaddy of them all; batting average is the best measure of a hitter.