The Stupidest Thing I've Heard All Day, April 9

From this morning's Mets-Phillies game (a tilt on which I'm sure Justin has no small amount of things to say):

(Note: This is in regard to a Paul LoDuca groundout the inning before that moved a runner to third who eventually scored. This conversation takes place the next time Paul LoDuca is up to bat. This conversation is not verbatim, but it's pretty damn close. I don't know who these assholes are.)

Asshole in the Booth No. 1: "Stat-heads will say that's a bad play, but it's not a bad play! It ended up scoring a run! That's good!"
Asshole in the Booth No. 2: "They ("stat-heads") can go into their laboratory with all their stats, for all I care."
No. 1: "Well ... stats are useful for some things (emphasis his)."
No. 2: "Yeah ... they are. But you should also actually watch the game (emphasis mine). You need a feel for the game."

There are so many parts of this exchange that are so insulting to our evolutionary ancestors that it's actually quite remarkable. Tragically, the "actually watching games" thing seems to be a common conceit among those who feel threatened by the encroachment of numbers, computers and critical thought into the once-virginal halls of The Way Things Are Done In Baseball. I just love thinking about a bunch of geeks who spend their entire lives breaking down statistics to prove that conventional baseball wisdom is silly, but adamantly refuse to watch an actual game because it's too boring, or they think it will somehow ruin their ability to view the game objectively.