Baseball is just fun, not important. There are no real ramifications. There are errors, sure, but each one is spelled with a small “e.” I can understand children crying or being really depressed if their favorite team loses. They haven’t had enough life experience to be consumed by headier matters. But adults who behave this way are lacking something. They haven’t evolved properly, haven’t developed the best priorities.

So it doesn’t really matter that the wrong player won the AL MVP award yesterday when Miguel Cabrera beat Mike Trout, or that many of the voters used stubbornly illogical, irrational reasons to justify their choice. The world will be fine despite this mistake.

But it’s still a little galling to see so many educated adults use such faulty reasoning, to cling to a narrative of their choosing in the face of facts. It was simple: Trout added more value to his team than Cabrera did for his, when you factor in offense, defense and baserunning. It doesn’t take a degree in advanced statistics to figure this out. The sportswriters who supported Cabrera did so because they cherry-picked certain statistics (offense, in this case) because they wanted to choose a player who won the Triple Crown (led his league in homers, RBIs and batting average). They wanted to reward the “historical importance” of such a feat. Except that at best it’s a tradition steeped in false logic and one that’s selective reasoning when used as the crux of an MVP argument.

They chose the narrative they cared about most for emotional reasons. The sad thing is, Trout, the actual best player. had a very real and wonderful narrative. A 22-year-old rookie who was the absolute best player in either league in his initial season? Such a rare and wonderful thing.

As I said, it won’t do any harm. But in other areas of life false narratives can have serious consequences. People can be passed over for employment or housing because “common wisdom” says certain things about certain people. Believing a narrative instead of facts can convince parents to not immunize children because of unwarranted fear. Mitt Romney lost nine out of ten swing states not only because he was a weak candidate but because of his campaign’s disdain for numbers. Facts matter and it would probably be a good thing if we practice using them even when considering the less important things in life.•