Baggio: the book stops at 27, and the 1994 row does not move
This file is the mirror image of #P00018 (Beckham): there, the fame outweighed the book; here, the book writes the year the world remembers as a tie. Our ability book for Roberto Baggio runs to 3 rows (1992/93 / 1993/94 / 1994, overall 89 → 88 → 88); the last one, 1994, carries no club in our file — its league field reads only "World Cup". The kick itself is registered in the public ledger of CASE 009, row by row, two of the nine shootout entries reading "over the bar". The miss sits on row 9 of our ledger. In the ability book it moves nothing. The column that falls hardest is Durability (DUR 58→55→52, 6 points), and it is one of 5 columns that never enter the 14-term weight table we use for a SS — thirty years of shared memory against a row that does not move: that gap is what this page is about.
The first page of the file
Roberto Baggio, born 1967, Italy supporting striker, retired 2004 — the only date our database offers for the end of his career. The ability book this archive keeps for him is 3 rows: 1992/93 and 1993/94 at Juventus (Serie A); the last row, 1994, carries no club at all, its league field reading only "World Cup". Overall: 89 → 88 → 88 — the summit on the first row, and the final two rows the same number.
This file is the mirror image of #P00018 (David Beckham): there, fame outweighed the book and the book wrote the remembered year as the lowest row; here the book writes the remembered year as a tie. The kick itself is not in our attribute table; it is in the CASE 009 ledger, row 9 of 9. The miss sits on row 9 of our ledger. In the ability book it moves nothing.
This file opened on 2026-10-09, cross-referenced to our published CASE 009 (signed 2026-08-23, verdict: MYTH BUSTED). That case quotes the verdict of popular memory verbatim on its first screen — Roberto Baggio lost Italy the World Cup. — and then takes it apart with seven matches, seven goal rows and nine shootout entries. This file does not touch that verdict. It reports the other machine: 3 rows × 44 columns = 132 cells, overall 89 → 88 → 88. Its most important figure is 0: between 1993/94 and 1994, our scale did not move. The miss sits on row 9 of our ledger. In the ability book it moves nothing.
The second thing is how the rows fall. Of the 28 columns that move, the first row monopolises 21 unique maxima and the last row 4; unique minima run the other way — the last row takes 10, the middle row exactly 1 (Off the ball OFF 88/87/88, which happens to be the second heaviest term in the SS table at 12 points). 3 further columns (CRO/OFF/STB) share their maximum across two rows. Read column by column, 1994 is clearly the weakest row in the book; the overall does not see it that way — the give-backs of the 5 weighed columns (ACC:6/CMP:6/PAS:8/SPT:6/STB:4) are offset by the 5 that are never weighed (AGI/CRO/DUR/SET/STA), and so 89 → 88 → 88: 1 point lost between 1992/93 and 1993/94, 0 between 1993/94 and 1994.
The third thing must be said plainly: the ledger does write the leg down, and this file does not deny it. The Semi-final row carries the note "leaves injured"; the Final row carries "plays full 120 minutes on injured hamstring" — quoted here as the archive's own text. What this file refuses is the sentence that joins that note to the dip in the attribute book, and the reason is arithmetical, not tactful: lift the 5 columns AGI/CRO/DUR/SET/STA on the 1994 row back to their 1992/93 values and our own SS formula still returns 87.8 — a difference of 0, because none of those columns is in the 14-term, 100-point weight table. What the scale cannot hold cannot be used to explain what the scale reads; and what the ledger recorded does not stop existing because the scale is silent. Two machines, two readings, set side by side: that is this file.
Season-by-season attribute matrix · 1992/93—1994
★ Attribution: row 3 (1994) has no club in our database; its league field holds only the competition name "World Cup". That is how this archive books a national-team year, not evidence of where he played. Heat shading reports absolute level only (scale 60–99); outlined cells mark the table's top value 96 — 3 of them, all in one column (SHW), constant across the three rows and outside the SS overall weights. This matrix is editorial derivation (L3) — anchored on our audited ledgers and public competition facts, not solved out of any engine database. Appearances, goals, assists, minutes and standings (all five fields NULL in our file) are neither held here nor quoted anywhere on this page: match-level numbers live in the CASE 009 ledger.
| Season | Age | Pos | MOBILITY | TECHNIQUE | PHYSICAL | DEFENDING | MENTAL | WILL | GOALKEEPER | OVR | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ACC | SPT | AGI | OFF | FIN | LSH | PAS | THR | CRO | SET | SHD | FTO | DRI | HEA | LFT | RFT | STA | STR | DUR | AIR | D1V | MAR | POS | AGR | ZON | INT | PRS | VIS | CMP | CON | LEA | STB | WOR | SHW | HGRL | WTW | DFZ | BIG | SAV | AER | CMD | DIS | ONE | OVR | |||
| 1992/93 | 26 | 86 | 82 | 91 | 88 | 92 | 90 | 92 | 93 | 74 | 93 | 79 | 95 | 95 | 62 | 77 | 89 | 80 | 62 | 58 | 60 | 38 | 30 | 52 | 53 | 46 | 55 | 56 | 79 | 85 | 82 | 80 | 83 | 62 | 96 | 92 | 78 | 46 | 85 | 25 | 25 | 25 | 30 | 25 | 89 | |
| 1993/94 | 27 | 85 | 81 | 90 | 87 | 91 | 89 | 91 | 92 | 74 | 92 | 78 | 94 | 94 | 62 | 76 | 88 | 79 | 62 | 55 | 60 | 38 | 30 | 52 | 53 | 46 | 55 | 56 | 78 | 84 | 82 | 80 | 83 | 62 | 96 | 91 | 77 | 46 | 84 | 25 | 25 | 25 | 30 | 25 | 88 | |
| 1994 | 27 | 84 | 80 | 89 | 88 | 91 | 89 | 90 | 92 | 72 | 91 | 78 | 94 | 94 | 62 | 76 | 88 | 77 | 62 | 52 | 60 | 38 | 30 | 52 | 53 | 46 | 55 | 57 | 78 | 83 | 82 | 81 | 82 | 63 | 96 | 91 | 77 | 47 | 84 | 25 | 25 | 25 | 30 | 25 | 88 | |
How to read this table. Start at the right-hand column: 89 → 88 → 88 — the last two cells are the same number, and that number is the book's minimum, held by two rows rather than one. Then look at Durability (DUR): 58 → 55 → 52 — 3 points per row, the steepest run in the file, and the column is absent from the SS weight table; so are Stamina (STA 80/79/77), Agility (AGI 91/90/89), Crossing (CRO 74/74/72) and Set Pieces (SET 93/92/91). Now read the first row: 21 columns take their unique maximum there, and the book's only peak stamp sits on it too. The miss sits on row 9 of our ledger. In the ability book it moves nothing. So the question worth asking is not which row is worst but what our scale read between 1993/94 and 1994: 0.
Across 132 cells the SS-weighted overall takes only three values: 1992/93 89, 1993/94 88, 1994 88. The minimum, 88, is shared by two rows, 1993/94 and 1994 — the script checked every column: the overall has no unique minimum anywhere in this file, while 10 other columns bottom out uniquely on 1994 and 1 on 1993/94. 5 of those 10 columns never enter the 14-term weight table.
Raise Durability on the 1994 row from 52 back to 58 and the recomputed overall is still 87.8. That is not an estimate; it is our own SS table (same-calibre proof: the formula returns 87.8 for 1994 against 88 stored, within ±1). There is no line in this archive's bookkeeping that runs from that leg to the overall. The ledger has one: the Final row reads "plays full 120 minutes on injured hamstring", and two of its nine shootout entries read "over the bar" — row 1 and row 9. Not because the night was light, but because our scale only has 14 notches: The miss sits on row 9 of our ledger. In the ability book it moves nothing.
5 columns fall on that row, the scale reads 0.
the first row takes the most, the last row ties the one before
A refusal is also a verdict. Four further things this book does not do: the 16 constant columns are not written up as "frozen across three rows" (that is our convention, not his career); the 1994 row is not written as a cause — our file gives it no club, no appearances, no standing, so this page uses it neither to explain the kick nor to be explained by it; the 9 unwritten years (1995—2003) are reported as blanks and nothing else, with no reason supplied and no other man's ledger borrowed to fill them; and the 6 places where the note field says only "Baggio" are never used for attribution — the player column of the same file holds both Roberto Baggio (5 rows) and Dino Baggio (1 row), two men one surname, so every name printed here must arrive with a full one.
The miss sits on row 9 of our ledger. In the ability book it moves nothing. The sentence blocks two ready-made stories at once. You cannot write "the book proves he broke at 27": the overall retreats 0 between the last two rows, and the 3 points Durability loses on that row are worth nothing in this formula. You cannot write "the book has nothing to do with that night" either: 10 columns set their book minimum precisely on 1994, and the notes say "injured" precisely on those two rows. What can be said is that this archive runs two records, one that writes the leg down row by row and one that weighs 14 terms, and their readings differ. Reporting that difference as the conclusion is the entire position of this file.
thirty years of memory, 0 points in the book.
3 rows of book, 3 verdicts
Juventus (Serie A), age 26, the first row of our book and the only peak stamp. Overall 89; 21 of the 28 moving columns take their unique maximum here (three of them by weight: Finishing FIN 92, Passing PAS 92, Through Balls THR 93). This row holds no appearances and no goals in our file (five fields NULL), so the page writes no match numbers for it.
Juventus (Serie A), age 27, the middle row. Overall 88 — the same number as the row that follows, and jointly the lowest in the book. Its only unique minimum is Off the ball (OFF 87), a term worth 12 points in the SS table. Durability has already slipped to 55 here (from 58).
★ National-team year · the club field is empty in our file and league reads "World Cup". Overall 88, level with the row before (change 0); 10 columns take their book minimum here, 5 of them outside the scale (Durability 52, Stamina 77). This file does not use the row to explain the kick, nor the kick to explain the row — the goals of that tournament are in the CASE 009 ledger.
Every milestone on this page comes from our own audited ledger
Juventus (Serie A) — our 3-row ability book opens here: overall 89, and Finishing 92 in the heaviest slot of the SS table. The only peak stamp sits on this row. (BallFact player_seasons)
vs Ireland (Group E): the player, minute and impact fields of this ledger row are all empty, and the goal section holds no entry of his for the match. So this file writes neither whether he played nor when he first touched the ball — the field is blank. (CASE 009 · L1)
vs Nigeria (Round of 16): his first goal row in our ledger, 88', impact equaliser; the second in the same match, 100', impact match-winner, its note reading "extra-time penalty". All 5 of his goal rows fall in knockout rounds, zero in the group — counted by the script on the player column, not relayed. (CASE 009 · L1)
vs Spain (Quarter-final): 88', impact match-winner. The note field of that same match also carries Dino Baggio 25', while the goal section holds no row for it — this file publishes that disagreement at the foot of the page (on file under CASE 015) rather than patching the ledger. (CASE 009 · L1)
vs Bulgaria (Semi-final): his two goals arrive at 20' and 25', impact opener and insurance, and the note reads leaves injured. We quote that note as ledger text and refuse to convert it into attribute numbers — the conversion was attempted, in the "two figures" box, and the scale did not move. (CASE 009 · L1)
vs Brazil: 0-0 (lost 2-3 on penalties). The note field of this row contains Attendance 94194 and plays full 120 minutes on injured hamstring. The shootout section runs to 9 rows; 2 of them read over the bar — row 1 and row 9. His is the last row of that section. (CASE 009 · L1)
His row reads impact over the bar, score 3-2. The note of the row immediately before it reads, word for word: score after kick: Brazil 3-2 Italy; Brazil lead before Baggio touches the ball. This file puts that sentence here so the position can speak for itself: the ledger books him on the last row; the ability book books him level with the previous one. What that kick changed is the business of CASE 009, not of this page. (CASE 009 · L1)
The last row in our file: age 27, overall 88. From here to his retirement in 2004 this archive holds 9 years with no row (1995—2003) — he did not disappear; we did not write. (BallFact player_seasons)
Two machines, two readings
BONG WENG
Archivist
Writing this file I kept measuring the distance between two rows. 1993/94 reads 88, 1994 reads 88; the difference is 0. Between those same rows Durability fell from 55 to 52, Stamina from 79 to 77, Agility from 90 to 89. The scale's reading is 0. I lifted those 5 columns on 1994 back to their 1992/93 values and recomputed: still 87.8 — not approximately, the same number. Out of 100 available weight points, those 5 hold 0.
So the real adversary of this file is not the legend but our own methodology. The legend says "he lost Italy the World Cup"; CASE 009 has already tried that sentence and returned MYTH BUSTED using the same ledger, and this file does not reopen it. The more respectable version is softer: "the book shows the decline too." The book shows 89 → 88 → 88 — 1 point between 1992/93 and 1993/94, and 0 between 1993/94 and 1994. Anyone who reads the 3 points of Durability as a fall is reading columns our weight table does not own. This page owns that consequence: the attributes are L3 editorial derivation, anchors placed by us, so "outside the scale" is our choice rather than the data's silence.
The third matter is those 6 bare surnames. The same ledger holds two Baggios: Roberto Baggio with 5 goal rows, Dino Baggio with 1; the goal section adds up to 7, while its own summary row declares 8. The missing one is Dino Baggio's second goal, which exists only inside a note (Dino Baggio 25') and never became a row. We publish that at the foot of the page (two entries on file under CASE 015, due 2026-10-15) and keep one rule: every name on this page must arrive with a full one from the player column. The miss sits on row 9 of our ledger. In the ability book it moves nothing. That sentence lands again in the note because it names two readings, not two errors.
CASE 009 tries a sentence the public has repeated for thirty years — Roberto Baggio lost Italy the World Cup. — and returns MYTH BUSTED on the strength of seven matches, seven goal rows and nine shootout entries. This file keeps 3 rows of ability book; it can neither overturn nor support that verdict, because it does not even hold his appearances. The one thing it can contribute — that the overall moved 0 between 1993/94 and 1994 — says precisely that our scale could not weigh that night. Two pages, cross-linked, different genres, a clear division of labour: the case file handles the claim, the player file handles the numbers, the ledger handles the night. The single moment this file lets the two genres meet inside one sentence is the sentence in which it refuses to make the Durability fall the cause of the kick.
Note: club and league attribution, row-by-row attributes and mark stamps come from the BallFact database (attributes L3 editorial derivation, anchors placed by us); appearances, goals, shootout order and the wording of notes are counted line by line by this script from the public ledger public/data/baggio-1994-worldcup.csv of CASE 009, and every minute printed on this page must resolve to a row in that file (a hard gate in the generator) — nothing is retyped. The 1994 row registers a competition only: standing, minutes and goal attribution are not held here and are not claimed; apps/goals/assists/minutes/team_rank are NULL for all three rows and are likewise left unwritten. One further disclosure: the goal section totals 7 while the ledger's own summary row declares 8; the missing entry is Dino Baggio's goal number 2, note-only. The identity gate has two entries on file, baggio-1994-worldcup.csv#B1 and baggio-1994-worldcup.csv#B2, owned by CASE 015, due 2026-10-15. This page therefore never quotes a team total as evidence and never edits that cell behind the case's back — it says so once in the sources and once in the note.
3 rows, 132 cells, 9 years blank, the ledger and the scale are not the same thing.
Data basis and confidence
public/data/baggio-1994-worldcup.csv (counted line by line for this file, nothing retyped): 7 match rows (1994-06-18 vs Ireland, 1994-06-23 vs Norway, 1994-06-28 vs Mexico, 1994-07-05 vs Nigeria, 1994-07-09 vs Spain, 1994-07-13 vs Bulgaria, 1994-07-17 vs Brazil); the goal section holds 8 entries of which 1 is a summary row (no date), leaving 7 goal rows; his 5 (20', 25', 88', 88', 100') carry impact fields equaliser, match-winner, match-winner, opener, insurance and all sit in knockout stages; 9 shootout rows, of which 2 read over the bar (rows 1 and 9), his on row 9 with the preceding note score after kick: Brazil 3-2 Italy; Brazil lead before Baggio touches the ball; the Final row's note contains Attendance 94194 and plays full 120 minutes on injured hamstring, the Semi-final row's leaves injured. The verdict MYTH BUSTED is signed by that case itself (2026-08-23); this file borrows its counts and quotations, not its trial.Dino Baggio 25' inside the note of the Quarter-final row. The identity gate has both symptoms on file: baggio-1994-worldcup.csv#B1 and baggio-1994-worldcup.csv#B2, owned by CASE 015, due 2026-10-15. Consequently this page never quotes an Italy total, never uses the summary row as evidence, and attributes names only from the player column — the note field says bare "Baggio" in 6 places and is not used for attribution here.S1 · BallFact CASE 009 "Baggio 1994" — the kick over the bar and the line "Roberto Baggio lost Italy the World Cup", tried line by line; verdict MYTH BUSTED: /truth/baggio-1994/.
S2 · CASE 009 public dataset /data/baggio-1994-worldcup.csv (the only source of every minute, impact field and shootout row number on this page; counted line by line by the script, with a hard gate re-checking each printed minute against the ledger).
S3 · BallFact player database player_seasons / player_attributes (slug=baggio, 3 rows × 44 columns = 132 attribute rows, all L3; mark column 1 peak, 0 valley).
S4 · BallFact attribute basis attrs-def (SS weights: 14 terms totalling 100 points, heaviest Finishing at 16; Durability/Stamina/Agility/Crossing/Set Pieces absent — so "which row is lowest" and "how far the overall falls" are two different books, checkable column by column).
S5 · BallFact focus pages: Shapes of a Ledger (volumes compared by book shape; this one joins with the shape "it moves nothing") and America 1994 (the 1994 file cluster this page belongs to).
S6 · Dataset CSV /data/players/baggio.csv (3 attribute rows, rendered from the database by the build pipeline; before writing, this script reconciles row count and OVR against it).
S7 · Cross-reference #P00018 David Beckham (/players/beckham/): the same 3-row skeleton with the opposite face — there the book writes 1998 as the lowest row, here it writes 1994 level with the row before. Neither file lets the night into the causality.
S8 · Cross-reference #P00017 Gabriel Batistuta (/players/batistuta/): the same 3 rows and the same club-less World Cup row at the end, but the tie has the opposite cause — that page's own shape line reads, verbatim, "three rows all print 88; the scale moved twice and the plaque never moved", whereas here the steepest columns never enter the scale at all. Both files leave the matches to the case ledgers and convert nothing.