Your Bleeped Up Brain

Everyone leave this alone. He's clearly fishing for some more drama. Don't need another "numbers vs. reality" thread.

My wife keeps book, Officially for one sons travel team and unofficially for my older sons game specifically for this purpose. She does the same in wrestling. when we have a debate on what we remember happening it is nice to go back and look at her book. Sometimes we have a disagreement on what happened in a game. Looking at the book lets us figure out if either of us are remembering correctly.

I have to say that in my line of work, sometimes the worst evidence is eye-witness testimony, can be very very in-accurate, 10 witnesses, 10 different stories

What’s the problem James? Exactly what is that you’re so sure I’m fishing for? I said exactly what I meant to say, that the memories of people watching the games shouldn’t be trusted for accuracy.

BishopLeftiesDad’s post shows exactly what I was trying to say, and lefthook’s post mimicked what the TV show gets across. If you want to be the guy who relies on his “gut” because he’s so sure what he remembers is accurate, please be my guest because I’m sure your opponents will appreciate it, even if they don’t know you’re doing it.

You’re coming across as exactly the kind of person I was referring to who dismisses any thought that their memory might be fallible.

One morning at about 5am a dozen years ago I was driving to work on the freeway in my "automatic, pre-programmed, half asleep" normal mode. Suddenly, a tire bounced in front of my car, missing me by a few feet, then landed on the hood of the car in the next lane and continued it's bounce across other lanes. It clearly had to have come from the other direction.

I was stunned for a moment, wondering if what I just saw really happened. I decided it did and called 911 and reported what I saw. They said it was interesting I was the only one to report it, but took my report politely. About a minute later, the traffic report on the radio said a rogue tire on US-60 in Mesa had been reported. About ten minutes later another report said the roque tire previously reported was not confirmed.

Did it happen? I know what I saw, but apparently nobody else did or reported it. I would've thought the guy missing the tire would've reported something, but it could've flown out of the back of a truck. Who knows.

Bottom line, we see things. Sometime others see the same thing, sometimes they don't. Are they real? Who knows...

Bottom line, we see things. Sometime others see the same thing, sometimes they don't. Are they real? Who knows...

That’s the crux of what I was trying to get at, but from the perspective of someone willing to use valid numbers to make decisions as opposed to counting on their own memory. I know I’ve heard coaches say things that I absolutely knew weren’t true, and I’ll say something to them privately along with giving them the proof, but I’ve seldom called BS where others were there to hear. That’s just flat out disrespectful, but I always feel obligated to say something. Problem is, a lot of  folks just can't accept that they were wrong.

I've had this happen by me and to me...I can think of a few months ago, driving shortly after dusk, when it looked like a bag of trash fell off an oncoming truck into my lane. I swerved and saw it was a deer, so I pulled off. He pulled around behind me, and I called 911 to report it. I swore the deer had to have run in front of him, but it actually ran in front of me and hit the side of his truck.

Of a more sobering example, I had a brigade deputy commander in Iraq who insisted that a certain adversary trend was the way he saw it. I, being the guy who actually had the job of tracking that information and developing it, briefed the command group and staff that the trend was the exact opposite of what he was so vocally insisting. He asserted that I must not have known what I was doing and that I needed to recheck my work. It only took two deaths for everyone else to realize that I was right. To the end of that deployment, he never accepted that those of us who did our jobs and had the data to support our conclusions were more likely to be right than him.

Matt,

Worries about baseball or a deer are truly put into perspective when compared to a REAL life and death situation.

Unfortunately though, the dynamics of what takes place are the same. Some people simply don’t know how to accept that they made some kind of mistake. And the shame of it is, its very seldom that when it happens it’s a personal thing, For me it’s a simple yes/no, black/white, or right/wrong. I was taught early on that it takes a lot less time admitting a mistake and correcting it, than it does to duck, dodge, bob, and weave, trying to avoid the truth. Sadly though, we’re all human and most people will  not willingly make themselves objects of criticism.

In higher levels of play, the scorekeeper is provided with replays to help them make their decisions. In most levels, we have to see it real time and choose...