There is a moment in "While We're Young" — a better-than-average, charmingly authentic recent film about aging hipsters and millennials — in which the four main characters are trying to remember a useless fact.
One of them reaches for a smartphone to gain the instant answer, but another shuts it down by saying: "Let's just not know." The lingering unscratched itch is captured perfectly, and it is perhaps the film's most enduring moment and line.
It's perfect for this day and age — particularly for sports fans — because most of us can't help ourselves. If there is something to know, why wouldn't we want to know it? Facts, figures, numbers and stats … they're so readily available, and they're so satisfying.
They help explain not just the what but the why, taking the mystery out of performances and identifying patterns before they even become trends.
But there is also a sort of sublime satisfaction in not knowing and simply appreciating, which I thought about Thursday as a I nonetheless crunched numbers for a blog post about Twins pitcher Kyle Gibson.
The "what" with Gibson is simple: he's thrown 17 consecutive scoreless innings, including six of them in Wednesday's blowout win over Oakland.
That's impressive in any league, but I couldn't shake the feeling that there was a "yeah, but …" lingering deeper inside the performance and Gibson's overall numbers.
Sure enough, a few red flags emerged. The biggest one is that in 36 1/3 innings pitched this season, Gibson has allowed 15 walks while only recording 11 strikeouts. That means that even when successful, he's often grinding out innings and relying on his defense.
