In this day and age, it's surprising to me that anyone associated with sports -- writers, announcers, reporters, anyone -- would fail to embrace statistics in some kind of way. Whether as simple as the age-old stats given in box scores or as far along as advanced stats that have risen to prominence, it's almost a prerequisite to have some basic understanding to make any meaningful analysis. But following Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals, one post-game personality on CBC both admitted not liking stats and called those that do "weenies."
On CBC's Seeking Stanley, the post-game show for the Stanley Cup Finals, one of the reporters had this to say while riffing on stats in a back-handed way (paraphrased and via NussCoug).
I don't normally like stats -- I usually think they're for weenies -- but there's one stat I do like, and that's the winner of Game 1 goes on to win the Stanley Cup X% of the time
WHAT? So instead of using a meaningful stat, she picked out one of those odd factoids usually reserved for fun trivia. For instance, Boston is 12-0 on Tuesdays when it's raining outside in the month of December.* Instead of grabbing some kind of meaningful stat, even as basic as Tim Thomas save percentage, the Game 1 winner stat was the one draw out of the hat.
And weenies? I'm offended. I love stats. I know many that love stats. But weenies? There has got to be a better insult than "weenies."
*Not a real stat
For the latest on Game 1, stay with our Stanley Cup Finals StoryStream. For more on the Canucks, be sure to check out Nucks Misconduct. For more on the Bruins, head over to Stanley Cup of Chowder.