the Clipperton legend: a loss to Clipperton counts as a walk in baseball
A win over Clipperton had no meaning because a loss to Clipperton had no meaning and didn’t hurt anybody’s regional and U.S.T.A. ranking, not once the guys in the U.S.T.A. computer center caught on to the Clipperton strategic M.O. Thus an early exit from a tournament because of a loss to Clipperton came to be regarded as sort of like a walk in baseball, stats-wise
Context
The ranking machinery adapts to the unplayable player by refusing to score him. Once "the guys in the U.S.T.A. computer center caught on," a loss to Clipperton stopped denting anybody's ranking — it "came to be regarded as sort of like a walk in baseball, stats-wise," a non-event the institution declines to count. It's the institution's whole self-image in miniature: the sport is a stats-engine that converts bodies into rankings, and when a match can't be a real contest, the engine simply logs it as null. Clipperton wins every tournament and has no ranking at all.