There are a lot of baseball statistics, way more than my feeble mind will ever be able to understand, but there is one element of the game there was no statistic for … until now.

Turn on any baseball broadcast, and you will more than likely hear an announcer describing a player as “gritty” or “scrappy,” and that he plays the game “the right way.”

More often than not, these players tend to be short and slow white guys.

In turn, this had led to a new phrase that is popping up around baseball and beginning to dominate the blogosphere: scrappy, white people.

While the idea of scrappy, white people is fairly new, they have existed for quite some time. Famous scrappy, white people include players like Pete Rose, Craig Biggio and David Eckstein.

While a lot of people might see this phenomenon as a social issue of how the majority views sports, or that it might be a by-product of the origins of baseball (created by scrappy, white dudes), I’d like to submit the idea that scrappy, white people (or SWP as I will refer to it now) is actually a baseball statistic that can help us define a player’s style and justify his other statistics.

Here’s how you can calculate a player’s SWP rating … (All categories are based on a 1-10 ranking)

Scrappiness (1 – no scrappiness to 10 – extreme scrappiness)

This measure is based on how this player presents himself and approaches the game. Someone with a high scrappiness rating usually doesn’t have a lot of flair in his appearance or playing style. They like to do the dirty work (do whatever it takes to get on base, like getting hit by a pitch) and their style usually manifests itself in high socks and/or silly facial hair.

Average Whiteness (1 – not your average white guy to 10 – very average white guy)

It goes without saying that a player’s SWP relies somewhat on his ability to … you know … be white. However, I find that most people attribute an SWP title to a player who seems to represent themselves. People cheer for these guys because they look like they could be our neighbor, our friend or even us. They give us hope that even we could be a professional baseball player, thus bringing us closer to the game.

Hype (1 – received a lot of hype to 10 – having no hype).

Usually SWP players seem to come out of nowhere. They often receive little fanfare in the minors and make their name playing scrappy (as defined above) baseball with the big club. This also happens to help them when things go bad. If an SWP player is not performing well, then he doesn’t necessarily get to hear it from the fans because nobody expected him to do much anyway.

Athletic ability (1 – very athletic to 10 – average athleticism)

A player with lots of athletic ability (like Corey Patterson) usually has high expectations to succeed and thus receives a lot of flak (like Corey Patterson) when he fails to meet expectations. For some reason, the average person has a hard time understanding why those blessed with athletic ability cannot dominate in sports. On the other hand, SWP players are often slow, fat, short or some combination of the three. This, again, brings us into the realm of average whiteness, but this has more to do with abilities. The less they look like athletes, the less we judge them as such.

The “right way” factor (1 – does not play the “right way” to 10 – plays the “right way”)

We hear this from announcers all the time when describing SWP players. But honestly, what does it mean? By my account, it seems to mean being patient at the plate, hitting the ball to the opposite field, making solid (but not great) defensive plays, not being a showboat, not being afraid to get some dirt on the uniform and respecting the tradition of the game. So basically, being good at the things that will not make you a superstar.

Now, take these numbers, add them up and divide by 50. This will give you a player’s SWP rating; thus, allowing us to justify a player with low batting average but stingy defense as a major league asset. Ryan Theriot, by my calculations, has a SWP rating of .790. Pretty good.

In all seriousness, though, there seems to be a strange trend in baseball where players that are defined as SWP, as I have described, get a free pass from the fans for average to below-average play. While I’m not saying that my definition of SWP strictly applies to people of Caucasian decent (obviously it does not, despite its name), isn’t it interesting how we (as fans) can be easier on players who are more like us, while we publicly berate superstars when they hit 30 home runs as opposed to hitting 40?

Maybe we don’t hold these SWP players to high expectations because we see a little bit of ourselves in them. They represent the dream we wish we could have.

Kyle Betts is a senior in Media. He can be reached at [email protected]