Message Boards and the Truth

Okay, today I will talk about factual dishonesty on message boards!

I was on the Detroit Tigers message board today where there were, as usual, a bunch of people bashing third baseman Brandon Inge. I grow weary of discussing baseball with people who can't do fifth grade math, specifically comparing decimals. One of the complaints about Inge was his failure to hit with runners in scoring position (RISP). I did a quick check on CBS Sportsline's website and sure enough, Brandon Inge was better than half the team with RISP, including superstars Gary Sheffield, Curtis Granderson, Carlos Guillen, and Sean Casey, who get criticized far less.

I would have let the whole thing go after I posted the research, but one guy just said, "I don't think so." That's his argument? "I don't think so?" Wow, I hope he thought long and hard about that one! Are people so intellectually lazy that they just don't care if they are misrepresenting the truth? I'm not talking about opinion. I'm talking about cold, hard fact.

Last year a guy on that message board claimed that Chicago White Sox fans were low class because of an incident that occurred in the 19th century. I calmly explained to him that at the time the incident occurred, the team we now know as the Chicago White Sox was a minor league team located in St. Paul, Minnesota. They only became the Chicago White Sox in 1901, when the American League was founded. Furthermore the team calling itself the Chicago White Sox at that time became the Chicago Cubs. He wasn't even talking about the same team!

He didn't let that get in the way of his rant. He raved on and on and on about how White Sox fans were classless because of this incident.

I just don't get how people, even when confronted with incontrovertible fact, maintain that their unsubstantiated claims are true just because they say they are.