"I want to flip on the animal brain, the one where I join the herd of yelling, chanting fans and leave behind the projections and The Sabermetrician's Cookbook. "

BEER.

For some of us, it is very hard to simply enjoy something for the sake of itself(though it is a very admirable trait). Much appreciated Jason.

Fantastic, thanks jason. I'm struggling with this now.

In my professional life I teach a workshop that helps people think more deeply about their work. My company believes that the better you can get at analyzing your work, the better you'll perform at it. And while I do think one reason why people like the workshop is that they feel smarter when they return to their work, the deeper satisfaction our tools offer is the sense of understanding and competence they feel more often as they do their jobs.

I think my interest in a developing a sabermetric understanding of baseball offers a similar feeling of satisfaction. It might be enough for some to watch baseball at a yeah-we-win/boo-we-lose level, but that level is not deep and does not last. I think many BP readers are here not just to look smarter than other fans, but because we really want to understand this game we love at a deeper level. For me, reading BP *sustains* my satisfaction at watching baseball. Sure, I'm still irrational in my responses to how my beloved Red Sox are playing, but I have no trouble meshing those reactions with wanting to understand their travails at a deeper level.

As Socrates said, "The unexamined life is not worth living."

Excellent article. There is a balance, I think, which is easier for some than others. For my part, having to explain baseball to my kids makes me break it down into animal brain terms, which helps me keep it simple. But when they're teenagers, I'm sure our conversations will all revolve around them explaining advanced statistics to me again, the little braniacs.

Nice article. I've often wondered about my baseball obsession - it's been around since I was about 11 and I became AARP eligible several years ago.

You hinted at something I've kinda realized over the years. We baseball fans relate to baseball in many different ways. Said differently, baseball is the proverbial big tent, that acomodates fans whose interest can be in all sorts of directions. I tend toward the historical, the numbers, the trivial. But I can relate to the guy who wants to talk about a swing or a windup, or uniform colors, whatever.

BP feeds me on various levels. Keep up the good work.

Good article. However, while I agree that we like "being smart", I would argue a nuance. It's not necessarily that we like being judged as "being smart" by our peers (though we do). Rather, it's that we enjoy the act of "being smart". The process of exchanging ideas, learning and teaching, is enjoyable.

Sure, I LOVE it when somebody recognizes my brilliance (faux arrogance intended). But the reality is that I just like thinking about stuff.

God I love this site. A wonderfully thoughtful article followed by a whole bunch of thoughtful, intelligent comments. Where else online can you find this? (I realize I work here now and this comment could be seen as advertising, but please take me at my word that I just find it refreshing as heck to read all of the above.)

As to the meat of it, I often wonder about that dichotomy, the head versus the heart, as it were. I find that even as I've grown more into a sabermetric understanding of baseball, I'm still able to get upset when the Red Sox lose. I'm not sure that's desirable or not, but that's the way it is. It still bothers me. Sometimes it bothers me because I know that they were the better team on the field that day and the luck of the baseball gods just was not with them.

As to personal experience (and then I promise I'll shut up), I find that when I watch games at home I often watch them with more of a sabermetric slant, so to speak. But when I'm lucky enough to attend a game, the MUST WIN fan in me comes out. I yell, drink a few beers and have a good time.

Thanks for the thought provoking article, Jason, and for some great comments. Made my afternoon.

I was beginning to think I was approaching baseball like a scientist (or more realistically, a blackjack player). Cold, analytical, looking for perfect play and deriding strategic mistakes.

Then I was at Johan's no hitter. Yep. Still a screaming eight-year-old fan.

Excellent article. I started to write a long response but discovered that I would need to think about this a lot more to say anything coherent. (Probably because I am even older than any of other responders have admitted.) I enjoyed it and it will probably inspire me to write down my thoughts somewhere. Maybe the grandchildren will read it sometime.

What I like best about the Jack Cust Experience is remembering this:

Cust represented the tying run, uncontested on his way to an uncovered home plate, and fell down to get tagged out, thus ending the game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfwrBpHeWiU

I would agree with a couple of previous posters that it's necessarily "being smarter than others" that we like, as just feeling knowledgeable, of feeling confident that when we answer a question asked to us by someone (a friend, a spouse, a child), we are telling them things that are closer to fact than to figments of pop psychology.
For myself, I don't find it interfering as much these days with my enjoyment as a fan. I'm able to watch Brandon Hicks hit the walk-off home run and just cheer and be happy. Sure, a few minutes later I'm on the Internet trying to figure out if Billy Beane can pull of a trade for a real shortstop, but that glorious moment of irrational happiness is still there for me, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
All that said, I really enjoyed the article, Jason, and appreciate the thoughtful comments already made here.

Terrific piece, Jason.

I want to say all of us began as emotional fans. Most baseball watchers didn't simply dive into the sport perceiving it as say, an academic problem that we want to solve or write a proof for.

Thinking back to when I was a kid (like 11 years old), I would label myself as that superiority chaser, to feel smarter about sports than all the other kids in my class. I'd study boxscores and watch tons of games and blab off to anyone who'd listen. I passed that emotional phase really quickly.

Perhaps that's where it all began, but now, that feeling has worn off and been replaced by indulging in the internet sabermetric community, and instead of chasing for superiority, it's for curiosity and knowing that the knowledge ceiling will always be pushed higher and higher. I think many of us are in that pursuit, and it perhaps surpasses the emotional value of baseball. We problem-solve every day in our lives at home and work; what's better than putting one's problem solving skills or intellectual thoughts in a sport we love?

But we still remember the time we were in the emotional phase, and there are memories of what that felt like, and I agree, sometimes I'd want that switch too. But it's great that sometimes, we see leaping human beings like Mike Trout rob home runs, or filthy sliders, or perfect swings that transcend metrics and analysis and bring that emotional side back.