Seeing the big picture in baseball is not always easy. There are a lot of games. And teams are streaky, winning 5, then losing 3. How are we doing?  Sometimes, it’s hard to say.

In a great act of pattern recognition, George Will says something like this.

All teams lose a third of their games. All teams win a third of their games. Whether a team does well or badly on the season depends on whether they win or lose that remaining third.

Ah. Clarity.

I thought of Mr. Will’s great act of clarification on Sunday when I was listening to the pundits (including Mr. Will himself) debate what will happen in Washington in the short term. There’s an argument to be made for gridlock and one to be made for cooperation. It’s a vexingly complex issue.

Then I wondered if we could say simply this. Each party will keep it’s faithful. Whether they win or lose in the next election depends on whether they win or lose the independents. And if we know anything about the current mood, we know that the independents want action. They want to see things get done. They want accomplishment, not grid lock.

References

Will, George F. 2010. Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball. Reprint. Harper Paperbacks.