act3 is a communication strategy and design firm that specializes in telling stories.

This blog is our story laboratory, a way to poke, prod, and take a closer look at the stories we see, the stories we tell, and our own assumptions and knowledge about why stories work (or don't). The goal is to better understand what makes a story connect with people, and how to tell better stories.

Like any blog, it's an evolving concept. We hope you'll follow along.

January 13

There are numbers in the record books, and then there are stories

Speaking Tuesday on ESPN about Mark McGwire’s completely unshocking revelation that he did, in fact, take steroids, Tim Kurkjian was asked about whether Roger Maris’ single-season home run record, which McGwire shattered in 1998, should be restored.

Kurkjian suggested the record should stand, citing some of the other questionable numbers and statistics that still stand in baseball’s offical record book, including the championship won by the 1919 Cincinnati Reds, “who won the World Series even though the other team, the White Sox, intentionally threw the World Series” in the infamous Black Sox gambling scandal.

He continued:

“What we do is we connect a story to these records, and explain to people what happened here. Then we leave it up to our best fans to decide what they think here. The thought that Roger Maris’ legacy is gone forever is absolutely ridiculous. Roger Maris’ legacy has been enhanced by all of this.”

Roger Maris

Baseball cherishes its numbers more than any other sport. But the numbers do not act alone. The Maris stories that came back into the public consciousness as McGwire and Sammy Sosa chased his record in that memorable summer of 1998 became as much a part of the mythology and the experience as the number itself, just as the stories (and controversy) about McGwire are now as much a part of his mythology and the experience of those who remember that summer as his magic number.

:: Posted by Eric Ratinoff ::