I owe a debt of gratitude to a friend that has always been there for me. It answers me whatever I ask of it. It's reliable and friendly, and best of all, it's free.
I'm talking about one of the single greatest amassed tools for the spread of knowledge throughout the world.
How did we ever get by without Wikipedia.org?
There is hardly an answer it doesn't have, and when it comes to sports, it's like having Professor Gill at your beck and call 24/7.
For instance, when the debate arose over whether Boston Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell was Cuban or Puerto Rican, who provided an answer? Wikipedia. (He's Puerto Rican, by the way, born to Cuban parents). Or when Floyd Landis raced to a kind-of-victory at this year's Tour de France, was it ESPN that highlighted the fact that Landis was raised as a Mennonite, an order of the Amish? Possibly, I didn't actually watch any of the races, but Wikipedia sure knew. Or when my roommate proposed an absurd formula for how saves in baseball are calculated, it was Wikipedia who proved him to be an idiot.
What else can Wikipedia do to help with your daily sporting enjoyment? What can't it do?!
It has all the answers, my friends. Why is John Madden scared of flying? What is Alex Rodriguez's at-bat song? Wikipedia will tell you. Need to know more about that random bench player your team just acquired? Wikipedia will enlighten you.
In Wikipedia you can trust. Sure there might be some inaccuracies, but a recent examination by the British journal "Nature" found Wikipedia to be just as credible on scientific topics as the Encyclopedia Britannica. If it knows string theory, I'm going to assume it's checked its facts on the infield fly rule.
So now that we've dispelled any fear of Wikipedia's validity, go and bask in Wikipeida's all-knowing wisdom! OK, so I may have sipped the Wikipedia Kool-Aid, but it truly is one of the great resources of our generation.
For instance, the New Orleans Saints dramatically returned home on Monday night to play their first home game since Hurricane Katrina devastated the Big Easy last year. But did you know that the name "Saints" came from the fact that the city received the team on January 9, 1967 ... All Saints' Day?
Or perhaps you're still fuming over America's embarrassment at this year's Ryder Cup? Well, if you are that one person, Wikipedia reminds you how the Yanks dominated the tournament between 1927 and 1983, and tells us where every prior Cup was held and the final scores.
Sure, if you're still stuck in the search engine age, you can use Google.com and go to one of Google's first or second selections, spending countless minutes wallowing around worthless websites until you find your answer. But wait, what's this? Google has a Wikipedia entry ranked first? Thanks for nothing, Google.
Need further proof of Wikipedia's dominance? Head to GoogleFight.com, pit "Wikipedia" against "Google," and you'll find Wiki delivers a Chuck Norris-style roundhouse kick to Google, 346,000,000 to 129,000,000. Booya.
Also, for anyone interested, the Internet won't explode if you Wikipedia Google, or vice versa. I checked. I also discovered you can't post yourself on Wikipedia unless you're determined relevant. But I'm still working on that.
Now I know there is a naysayer or two out there that still claims Wikipedia isn't a "credible" source. And those same nattering nabobs of negativism will probably flaunt some rag like the "Dictionary" or an accredited "academic journal" in my face. But to that I say remember that the infallible Oxford English Dictionary's most prolific contributor was Dr. William Minor, a certifiable lunatic who cut off his own...on second thought, just go to Wikipedia.
It'll tell you the rest.
Andrew Bauld is a senior majoring in English and political science. He can be reached at andrew.bauld@tufts.edu.
