Strat story I stumbled across about Fred and Barney

[Badjam]

There are Lessons in Losing at SOM

This is the story of 2 guys in my league, Fred and Barney (The names have been changed to protect the guilty). Fred is a SOM veteran of 20 years. In addition to my league, he also plays in TBA tournaments, a play-by-mail league, a Rotisserie League, and various solitaire leagues. He even played in a Bill James Fantasy Baseball league too until his wife put her foot down. So Fred dropped Bill James. He later dropped his wife too, but that, as they say, is another article.

Barney first played SOM in high school with a few friends. No league, just fun. This is Barney's first league. He likes it.

When the new cards arrive, Fred sharpens every pencil in his house, defrosts everything in his freezer, calls in sick to work, pulls his shades down and rates cards. When he emerges a week later, he has bags under his eyes, the beginnings of a beard, seven newspapers on his front lawn, and knows how many double play chances Julio Franco has vs. lefties.

Barney looks at the cards when he has time. He knows nothing about probability. He rates the cards by counting the hits; if a player has hits on 1-2, 1-3, and 1-4, that's three hits. If he has hits on 1-6, 1-7, and 1-8, that's three hits.

Fred dismisses the player's name value and season stats and goes by the card itself. Barney dismisses the card itself and goes by the player's name value and season stats.

Fred makes the playoffs every year. Barney never has.

No one likes to trade with Fred, due to his knowledge and competitiveness. Everyone likes to trade with Barney, due to his lack of knowledge and competitiveness. In fact, no one really likes Fred at all, largely because he wins all the time. Everyone likes Barney because he doesn't.

Fred is a pretty good winner (who isn't) but a crummy loser. We call him the Earl Weaver of SOM. Every time things don't go well he runs off to tell the other league member about every bad roll of the dice. At least he doesn't kick dirt on us. Barney is a good loser. No one knows if Barney is a good winner since he never wins.

If Fred wins, it was by skill. If he loses, it was his bad luck. If Barney wins...well, he doesn't so let's move on.

My league had a typical season: Fred winning, Barney losing. - but... Something interesting happened down the pennant stretch. Barney started to WIN. Maybe it was luck, maybe it was all those years of losing evening out. But probably it was luck.

Barney snuck into the playoffs on the season's final day, then won a playoff series against a guy named Tom. Tom's team had beaten Barney 19 out of 20 in the regular season. Tom still hasn't fully recovered and last I heard his wife was putting him in TableTop Baseball Rehab.

And that left only two teams to play for it all.....Fred and Barney.

Fred called in sick again so he could prepare for the series. Barney called his Mom in Des Moines and told her he had made it to the World Series. His Mom, being aware of his lifetime winning percentage, was slightly surprised and very proud.

Fred arrived for the series with a laptop computer and cellular phone so he could access his home computer to fax him additional information about Barney's team if necessary. Barney forgot his cards at home and had to borrow the Commissioner's so he could play.

It was no contest, really. Barney killed him. Fred was so upset he actually tried to kick dirt on us, but since we were inside he only scuffed the linoleum. Fred threw his cards and dice in the air and tore Todd Zeile clean in half after a key error. Barney swept Fred, 4-0.

When it was all over, both needed to use the phone. Barney called his Mom. Fred called in sick again; the loss had made him physically ill and he actually was sick. His boss, tired of it all, fired him on the spot.

The moral of the story, I realized, is that we all have some Fred in us and some Barney in us. The trick is to minimize the Fred and maximize the Barney. Because you can have a high winning percentage and still be a loser, while you can also have a low winning percentage and still be a winner.

Ask Fred. Or Barney.

[robert.kosky]

Loved the story, but I especially liked the moral of the story. I know several managers who should adopt Barney's mind set. With the switch-over this weekend, I needed a Strat fix! Now the shaking will subside for at least an hour!

[coyote303]

I won't say if I'm a "Fred" or a "Barney," but if you are ever within ear shot after I get swept, you can quickly draw your own conclusion.

[jfreeman]

My one issue with this strato fable is that it is two-dimensional. The missing third dimension is HAL! Fable should be changed so that Fred selects his team based on stats, Barney based on names (and or favorite hat color) and Bam Bam, not knowing any better, let's HAL quick pick his team. Then, after Bam Bam wins the WS, Fred commits himself to baseball rehab, Barney stays the same but begins to have doubts about the level of the playing field (wondering if the game was somehow fixed) and bam bam takes a nap.

[honestiago1]

Semi-Related story: we drafted a computer NBA team years ago. My brother's wife drafted the guys she liked (which led to Avery Johnson being taken with her 3rd pick). Everyone else had some sort of a strategy (my brother's was to have as many "ball hogs" on his team as he could [thus, Latrell Sprewell was the point guard]). I picked mine based on balance, depth and defense.

You know the ending. She kicked our asses.