Your opinion has my curiosity piqued. I would truly be grateful if you expounded upon it so as to further enlighten me. Only when an observation has been repeatedly validated can it be considered a fact. Even then I'd stick an asterisk by it. You also need compitent data takers, which is not a given in a "stat" for it to become a "fact." A stat is very close to becoming a fact, but I don't think you can make that leap in confidence. It's a minor point, but since this thread has run amok, I thought I'd throw that in there. I don't have a problem with stats. They're wonderful things, but you have to be careful about the conclusions you draw from your data. I understand where you are coming from in this split hair, but I would strongly disagree with you on the following basis: The question is not whether Soriano hit a home run on any given day. The question is whether or not the governing body in question gave him credit for hitting a home run. The first question may be challenged on your basis above. The second cannot be reasonably questioned as it is documented and reported through many, many independent sources. The accumulation of baseball events is all done on this basis and therefore baseball statistics are actual facts. You are saying that in one case, the data is true and therefore the stat must be a fact. You are reasoning from the specific to the general, but that is not a valid argument. The confidence level in HR data taking has nothing to do with defensive data confidence or any other baseball data confidence. I believe Tantotiger even said (in your chat forums) that defensive stats are arguably not better than the scout's judgement b/c they are both involve human subjectivity. Obviously that data and the resulting stats are not facts as they can differ depending on who is taking them. It's also another thing to say that a certain stat is a "fact" and then to draw conclusions from it. Those conclusions may or may not be true depending on how you use facts to justify an argument. ^^^ Yes, I know it's PHIL 101 junk. :lol: Don't make me bring out causation analysis and David Hume...those days are long behind me and you're both tempting me. :cry: