Bald eagle nesting pairs in the US

Between 2005 and 2021, bald eagle nesting pairs and MLB strikeouts both increased, correlating at 0.9644. The patriotic reading is that America's national bird is personally responsible for intimidating batters, perching behind home plate and staring down anyone who dares make contact. The baseball reading is that the sport has shifted toward power pitching at the same pace that the eagle population recovered, which is true but considerably less majestic. Both numbers went up. One represents a conservation triumph; the other represents a strategic evolution. Neither knows about the other, but together they describe an America that is simultaneously wilder and more strikeout-prone.

Bald eagle pairs grew from roughly 9,800 to over 71,000, one of the great conservation successes in American history. MLB strikeouts grew from about 30,000 to over 42,000 per season, driven by increased pitch velocity and the three-true-outcomes approach. Both are upward trends across the same window, one biological and one sporting, with no shared mechanism.

A conservation success and a baseball strategy shift will correlate across any shared growth window. The eagle and the strikeout describe different kinds of American progress, and the r-value cannot tell which is which.