Keep This Outcome in Mind

Experts were zero for 18 predicting the NLDS.
Even pitchers have a better batting average.

Of course, we had a rooting interest in the playoff series between the San Francisco Giants and the Washington Nationals. The Giants clinched the series, three games to one, on Tuesday night, despite having a vastly inferior team to the Nationals (one national baseball commentator said that the Giants did not have the better player at any position).

Gloating over the underdog's victory doesn't confer the usual pleasures because the Nationals aren't a hated rival like the Dodgers. Also, fans fondly remember Nationals manager Matt Williams as one of the all-time greatest San Francisco Giants third basemen.

If there's any gloating to be done, it's over the baseball writers who predicted the Giants loss. In fact, Sports Illustrated's nine so-called experts picked the wrong team on all four of the League Division Series. In the case of the Cardinals-Dodgers and Giants-Nationals, they were unanimously wrong.

In an age of deferring decisions on our lives to experts who know much more that we do on practically every subject, keep this outcome in mind. © 2014 Stephen Yuen