A Response to Deadspin’s Chris Thompson
Think back to your grade school bully; everyone has one. The kid who found something you do that was a little different than everyone else- your speech, your sneakers, or the music you like. Chances are, you stayed awake at night worrying about how to assuage that bully, making yourself more socially acceptable at the expense of your individuality, just to stop getting teased.
Elementary school can be a rough place, and hopefully you’ve grown past this as an adult. You’ve learned to be who you are and do what you like regardless of what other people think of you. Hopefully that bully has also grown in the same way. I feel sorry for those that still need to make fun of others to feel better about themselves, especially as grown adults. It’s a terrible existence otherwise.
Very early this morning, Deadspin author Chris Thompson wrote about the Effectively Wild Facebook group. It’s a collection of nearly 8,000 baseball fans who come to discuss Ben Lindbergh’s and Jeff Sullivan’s Effectively Wild podcast as well as the general minutiae of the game.
Thompson singled out a particular minutiae-based thread discussing the meaning of “10 games over .500.” In his article, he described the thread as a “dumb internet war” and suggested that “a normal, balanced person” should aim “a can of pepper spray directly into the eyes” of someone who cares about such things. He repeatedly, sarcastically referred to the group members as “true baseball knowers” and the group as a whole as “the void.”
Before going any further, I should disclose that I am a member of the EW Facebook group. I was not part of the thread in question and I do not proclaim to speak for anyone but myself.
Thompson’s article is the journalistic equivalent of Nelson Muntz laughing at his classmates. Sure, the debate was silly, but that’s not the point. If you don’t care about defining games over .500 (I don’t), just don’t participate. Instead, Thompson chose to point and laugh at them to get a few clicks. No, this is not a typical baseball discussion, and no, most baseball fans probably don’t care about it. But that’s the entire point of having a specialized Facebook group!
Now, Thompson has invited other people to come laugh at the “nerds” by publishing on Deadspin. Of course, there’s no expectation of privacy on the internet, and Facebook comment sections are not for the thin-skinned. No one in the group needs me to defend them, nor did they ask. But I feel incredibly sorry for Thompson. It’s pathetic that he couldn’t think of anything more legitimate to write about (at 2:35 AM), and decided to make fun of people who simply enjoy baseball a little differently.
There are lots of different kinds of baseball fans. The game is for liberals and conservatives, old and young, women, men, non-binary, all races and religions. Everyone gets something a little different out of baseball, so who’s to say which is the right way to enjoy it? Which are the “acceptable” baseball discussions and which aren’t? It seems like the only “true baseball knower” is Chris Thompson.
-Daniel R. Epstein
