I am an avid baseball fan and I think what interests me the most about baseball is the sport's history. I enjoy the way that much of the game's history is developed through the wealth of statistics and box scores generated by the game itself. For example, the 1998 Major League Baseball season underscores how the game creates excitement through numbers rather than language itself. In 1998, even non-baseball fans got caught up in the drama of Mark McGwire's setting of the single-season record for home runs at 70. One of the important aspects of McGwire setting the record is it gave most Nort…