Mostly sunny, increasing darkness towards evening

The title of this week's column is also the title of an essay from the 1990 Baseball Forecaster. Nearly two decades ago, we did not know nearly as much as we do now, so our forecasting efforts were far more rudimentary. We were in no position to make grandiose claims about projective accuracy (though some did anyway). The touts at the end of the last century lived in a world of imprecision.

Often, the best we could do was make projections with a broad brush. My player commentaries in that 1990 book were about as broad as you can get. Ben McDonald "has a bright future ahead." Billy Swift "should tail off." Jesse Barfield "has plateaued."

It was a simpler time.

Tonight, the friendly weather forecaster on my local television...

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