Yikes. I've got to leap to the defense of my favorite online columnist, since not one but two of the blogs I read regularly have taken out axes and savaged him in the last 24 hours. The Fat Guy and Tony Pierce have attacked ESPN's Bill Simmons for being uninformed, frivolous, and unworthy of a writing gig at the hallowed ESPN.com. The fact is, Simmons doesn't present himself as a scholar of the game. If Rob Neyer were to start writing about movies, that would be noteworthy, but I happen to have followed Simmons since his days at Digital City. He's never presented himself as more than a sports fan who gets excited and depressed about his teams at the drop of a hat, frequently digresses into pop culture, and enjoys sports just for the simple things they offer. In short, like 90% of sports fans out there. And he regularly cracks me up 2-3 times a column; I won't apologize for that.

I love reading Rob Neyer's stuff, but I think if I had to sit next to him for 9 innings, I'd suffer from Stat Overload. Honestly, I don't even know how an OPS is calculated. It's like a QB rating; I think it takes into account the Dow Jones average and the high tide. My guess is that most of the managers in the majors don't know half the stats that Neyer does; can you really picture Jimy Williams using OPS and WHIP and BYOB to overrule the little voice in his head ("Mr. Weebles" -- named by Simmons)? My fantasy league counts hits, home runs, innings pitched, and other stats that I can figure out without a slide rule. And that's good enough.

Just had to get that heard before the jury.