Look in any book of pop psych or new-agey, psudeo-Zen platitudes, and you’re sure to see something about the importance of never looking back. It’s not necessarily bad advice, but it is advice that is hard to square with the life of a baseball fan. Glancing at the box scores in the morning paper (forgive the anachronism, it’s more evocative than looking at a phone) is looking back at what happened yesterday. Every statistic is a measure of where the player stands now, but it’s also an accumulation of what they’ve done in the days past. A baseball game observed by people who steadfastly refuse to look at anything other than the present would be played by teams without standings comprised of players without statistics.
Then and Now: Aaron Nola
