The Index of Self-Destructive Acts is the title of a novel by Christopher Beha. But the phrase originates with Bill James, the renowned baseball statistician. The index measures a pitcher's self-sabotage: walks + balks + hit batters + wild pitches + errors, events entirely in the pitcher's control quantifying how often the pitcher beats himself. E-1 in your scorebook.
The book features faceoffs between a baseball traditionalist and the book's protagonist - “a quant” i.e. quantitative analyst for whom data is king. H. James Harrington sums it up for the quant. "If you can't measure something, you can't understand it. If you can't understand it, you can't control it. If you can't control it, you can't improve it. The only sensible man I know is my tailor; he takes my measurements anew each time he sees me."
Is there such a thing as a “clutch hitter”? The number cruncher says no. Players do not perform better in some situations than others. The traditionalist says but, but, .. I have so many examples. The traditionalist swoons over a great fielding play. The quant says, nice catch but the data says he’s a below average fielder. And so it goes. The game is being taken over by a raft of new statistics, turning managers into robots. RSOR, runs saved over replacement? WAR, wins above replacement? BABIP, Batting average on balls in play? What the heck, a stat that throws out the 18+ strikeouts and the dozen walks per game? These are the things destroying the game. If you want data, measure the attendance figures. I predict that in the not too distant future, some team, probably Oakland, will turn over the managerial role to AI.
For the quant the game is all about stats. No claim is valid without supporting data, which should dictate game decisions. So we have the demise of the sacrifice bunt and the hit-and-run, the steal of home. A complete game? Don't be silly. And a preponderance of the strikeout producing upper cut swings. For the traditionalist the joy of baseball is the grace and beauty of the game, a great catch to rob an extra base hit, a great throw from deep short to nail the runner by a half step, the pleasure of watching a hitter run out a triple. But, instead, what we get are a constant stream of batters strolling back to the dugout or fans looking up into the stands. I mourn.
In case it's not clear, I fall in the traditionalist category. But, nevertheless, I can recite baseball statistics with the best of them. I even own a Bill James’ book. As a kid I memorized the backs of my baseball cards so my statistical prowess dates mainly to the 50’s. So stats are fine. They document baseball’s storied history. Except for WAR* - how do you calculate that? But ..who won the World Series in 1924? Who was the last .400 hitter? What was the greatest team in history? Now you're talkin'.
But this baseball chatter is just prologue, because I find it interesting. The fact is the "index of self-destructive acts" is an apt assessment of the human condition. It can be applied to most any human activity. We all commit them and at a distressing rate. This is actually the focus of the Beha book. Baseball is just a smoke screen. The book details a litany of avoidable personal failures and the large and small catastrophes that result for every character in the book.
So, we could apply a destructive acts index to grade ourselves a la the demerit system of West Point, where demerits are accumulated for offenses like tardiness, unshined brass, sloppily made beds, marching out of step, cheating or getting a tattoo. When the demerit threshold is breached, punishment is administered. e,g, marching solo in full dress uniform on the parade grounds on a weekend under the hot sun or freezing cold for hours, lowering class rank - or expulsion.
So search your memories for your self-destructive acts and create an index of your unforced errors coupled with your highlight reel kindnesses. If the E1's outnumber the base hits, you might want to take some corrective action. Just remember that it takes 10 atta-boys to offset 1 "oh sh-t".
*For the record, here's how WAR is calculated.
WAR = (Batting Runs + Base Running runs +/- Runs from GIDP + Fielding Runs + Positional Adjustment Runs + Replacement Level Runs) / (Runs per win)
Clear?
Copyright © 2026 Dave Hoplin
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