Category Archives: Baseball

FRONTIERS IN BASEBALL STATISTICS.

Posted on July 15, 2009 by Philip

FRONTIERS IN BASEBALL STATISTICS. Yesterday, I contrasted the dramatic improvements in the collection of baseball data and in the number and sophistication of the statistical analyses of that data with what seems to be much less study of data on … Continue reading →

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LEARNING ABOUT CHEMOTHERAPY REGIMENS.

Posted on July 14, 2009 by Philip

LEARNING ABOUT CHEMOTHERAPY REGIMENS. When Mary Jane was being treated for breast cancer fifteen years ago, I learned that there were different drugs and different combinations of drugs to choose among and also that for each combination of drugs there … Continue reading →

Posted in Baseball, Economics, Science | 1 Comment

MARILYN MONROE AND JOE DIMAGGIO.

Posted on July 8, 2009 by Philip

MARILYN MONROE AND JOE DIMAGGIO. Leonard Mlodinow begins his article with a story about Joe DiMaggio, just back from World War II, going to a Yankee game with his four-year old son, Joe, Jr. The fans were soon chanting DiMaggio’s … Continue reading →

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LUCK AND THE WORLD SERIES.

Posted on July 8, 2009 by Philip

LUCK AND THE WORLD SERIES. In a short series, anything can happen. So runs a lot of thinking about baseball. Leonard Mlodinow’s article has a very helpful analysis of the role of luck in the World Series. Assume that in … Continue reading →

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BASEBALL STREAKS AND MUSCLE MEMORY.

Posted on July 8, 2009 by Philip

BASEBALL STREAKS AND MUSCLE MEMORY. I posted here on the thought that for baseball players “a swing results from a complicated series of muscular movements and sometimes hitters get it right and get their muscle memory to repeat that swing.” … Continue reading →

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DIMAGGIO DID IT TWICE.

Posted on July 7, 2009 by Philip

DIMAGGIO DID IT TWICE. There is an anomaly to Mlodinow’s contention that DiMaggio’s streak could be accounted for as the result of a random process— that there is a better than 42% chance that some major league player or other … Continue reading →

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RANDOMNESS AND STREAKS.

Posted on July 7, 2009 by Philip

RANDOMNESS AND STREAKS. Kids, people underestimate how common streaks are when the events are random. What are the chances that if you toss a coin 100 times that you will get a streak of ten or more heads or tails? … Continue reading →

Posted in Baseball, Basketball, Science, Sports | 1 Comment

USEFUL PHRASES–“MISERY POKER.”

Posted on June 16, 2009 by Philip

USEFUL PHRASES–“MISERY POKER.” There were control freaks back when I was growing up, but we didn’t have a name for them. Now, calling them “control freaks” helps us recognize them. I was engaged in an e mail discussion today with … Continue reading →

Posted in Baseball, Sports, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

EVERYBODY IN THE INFIELD.

Posted on May 29, 2009 by Philip

EVERYBODY IN THE INFIELD. Malcolm Gladwell had an article about a girls basketball team (twelve and under) which had great success playing a full court press. The article turned out to be controversial (google new yorker gladwell basketball if you … Continue reading →

Posted in Baseball, Basketball, Sports | 2 Comments

AN UMPIRE MAKES HIS RATING KNOWN.

Posted on May 28, 2009 by Philip

AN UMPIRE MAKE HIS RATING KNOWN. I have urged in several posts, including here, that the grading of the performance of sports officials should be made public. Now an umpire has made his rating for a game public. Umpire Bob … Continue reading →

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