[decimon]

If you know history people think you ‘sound smart’, but if you know just as many facts and can analyze and recite them just as well - but they are about baseball.....

People remember what they care about. Emotion helps retain short term memories - so if your attitude is “wow, this is REALLY COOL!” you will remember it for years - but if you think “Is this going to be on the test?” - you MIGHT remember it for the test.

You're kinda channeling me with this. I've worked manual labor with many academic duds as coworkers. When it came to sports many showed quite good mental ability. They liked sports so it just 'came to them.'

[allmendream]

I have known baseball fans who have a knowledge of the history of the franchise and the mathematics of performance and names on the roster that, if about the Civil War - would garner respect as something of an expert!

My brother is about as sharp a guy as they come - but is dyslexic - anything 2D and he isn't the sharpest - anything 3D and involving money - the guy is about as sharp as they come - RAZOR! He worked - now runs his own (SHARP) landscape and fountain company.