Fandom: What Sports Fans Actually See

Standings

Episode Summary

On today's episode, Stephen Baum and I discuss standings (as in that compact table keeping track of teams' wins and losses). Fans are fascinated with jumping the gun on predictions, extrapolating playoff pictures, and ruminating on “if the season ended today”. In these examples, Stephen and I talk about the illusion of a fan’s desire to control time and how we sometimes misuse information when it’s available to us. In addition, what, if anything, do people use to track their personal "standings" in their day-to-day lives? (Recorded 12/2/20)