I think the trope is specifically about the idea that baseball is the only sport that nerds don't dislike. The part about using numbers to analyze a game is just a possible explanation for why nerds would like baseball, the trope's not actually about that.
(Mind you, I'm just explaining my take on it, I'm not defending it. Personally, I've never encountered this trope - all the nerds I know in real life like or dislike baseball as much as any other sport and the most of the references I can recall in fiction about nerds and baseball are about how bad they are/were at Little League (which invariably they were forced into by their parents) or seem less like "baseball is the one sport they like" than "the author is a baseball fan and it never occured to him that some people aren't." But, hey, that doesn't mean it's not a real thing.)
Personally, I would add figure skating (especially for classical music geeks and ballet geeks) and curling (on paper, it's a combination of shuffleboard, lawn bowling, and janitorial work; in real life, it's a chess game on pebbled ice, right down to being timed with something very much like a chess clock).
Anyone else think we should avoid 'averted' entries? Presumably most people aren't huge baseball fans, nerd or not. In the 'real life' section, a good amount of 'examples' are just "Averted by *famous 'nerd'* who prefers *sport* ." Doubly so with people from cultures where baseball isn't popular.
ElegantVamp
What does Hollywood "lacking subtlety" have to do with the rest of the trope?
You watch me, just watch me. I'm calling- I'm calling. And one day all will know... Hide / Show Replies
Probably an unrelated complaint that can be removed.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Is this trope limited to baseball? What about other games, like computer games, that have many 'mathy' players? Can it be used to refer to a group of 'mathy' players in a game where most players are 'normal'?
Edited by goto124 Hide / Show Replies