"I have a friend who's an artist, and he sometimes takes a view which I don't agree with. He'll hold up a flower and say, "Look how beautiful it is," and I'll agree. But then he'll say, "I, as an artist, can see how beautiful a flower is. But you, as a scientist, take it apart and it becomes dull." I think he's kind of nutty."
"Still, February belongs to the artists, the beat writers. Pitchers and catchers have reported, and there's no shortage of reporting: old friends and familiar smiles, familiar storylines, familiar quotes. Blurry photos that perfectly capture the spirit of something indistinct, emotional. February baseball is in the best shape of its life, but there are no scales to weigh on: Mathematics isn't allowed onto the complex yet."
Richard Feynman recounts an artist's claim that scientific analysis diminishes beauty and rejects that claim, arguing scientific knowledge adds new layers of excitement, mystery, and awe. Baseball experienced a similar tension between artistic storytelling and statistical analysis over the past quarter century, with most of that crisis resolved though occasional friction persists. February and spring training belong to beat writers, reunions, familiar storylines, and evocative, indistinct images. Baseball in February appears vibrant and unmeasured by metrics. Once games begin, analysis enters, moving beyond box scores to exploit radar guns and advanced data to deepen appreciation and understanding.
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