Scorecasting
The book I read for a free choice this summer was Scorecasting by Tobias J. Moskowitz and L. Jon Wertheim. This is not a traditional book. There are no characters, no main actions, and no plot. This book goes through football, basketball, baseball, and soccer, the five biggest sports in the world, and disproves or proves many common sports beliefs and clichés such as home field advantage is an actual advantage and if the cliché “Defense wins championships,” really is true. Throughout he book the authors use statistics to compile their data, which proves or disproves these beliefs. One of these beliefs that the book spends a lot of time discussing is if home field advantage actually occurs. When you look at the statistics in every sport the home
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The largest home winning percentage happens in college basketball at 69.1% and the smallest home winning percentage is in Major League Baseball at 54.1%. What the authors found out was that the travel that the visiting teams have to go through to get to their games had no effect on their play such as a team from Los Angles traveling to Boston didn’t affect the LA team at all. This is the case because most teams travel a few days in advance of the game so they can get acclimated to the location. Also, the stadium design seemed to have no effect on the visiting players. For example the unique design of Fenway Park with the Green Monster does not give the Red Sox an advantage, since they play with it all the time, or give visiting teams a disadvantage, since they play at Fenway Park only a few times each year. The other conventional wisdom that most people would think of when discussing home field advantage is that fan noise has a huge impact on the players, but when you look at the stats this is not the case. The fan noise has little to no effect on the players, but the referees are a different story. The referees or umpires tended to favor the home team in their calls especially during
Do Major League Baseball teams with higher salaries win more frequently than other teams? Although many people believe that the larger payroll budgets win games, which point does vary, depending on the situation. "performances by individual players vary quite a bit from year to year, preventing owners from guaranteeing success on the field. Team spending is certainly a component in winning, but no team can buy a championship." (Bradbury). For some, it’s hard not to root for the lower paid teams. If the big money teams, like Goliath, are always supposed to win, it’s hard not cheer for David. This paper will discuss the effects of payroll budgets on the percentage of wins for the 30 Major League Baseball teams of 2007.
Ultimately, there are three exceptionally important criteria for deciding on good candidate for an expansion team. The first criterion is that the stadium must be controlled or owned by the baseball team. The stadium is a crucial aspect because most of the team’s revenue is generated in relation to the stadium. This stadium revenue comprises of ticket sales, parking, merchandise and concessions. Thus, without a stadium, the team will not be able to generate a stable source of revenue. The second criterion is that local ownership must have strong roots within the community. Without ties to the community, fan attendance could decrease. This is because fans could eventually perceive that the owner(s)’s only goal for the MLB franchise was to be profitable. The third criterion is the city must have long-term political support in the community. It is vital to have political support in order to gain financial support throughout the team’s years of existence, especially in tax payer monies. Particularly, this is significant when the team experiences issues or fights that involve the stadium and the land around the stadium. If there is a lack of political support, the expansion teams will not be able to obtain enough for money for stadium renovations, repairs, or to build new stadiums for the same team within the same city. This circumstance was apparent when the New York Yankees used tax revenue generated by New York City to fund the building of their brand new stadium for the 2009 season. Therefore, expansion committees believe it is necessary to confirm that the prospective cities will have enough political support because this political factor will help stabilize and financially support the prosp...
These social connections and sense of community created by the team for the fans, is a key factor in fan experience (Fairley & Tyler, 2012). The final solution addressed in this paper is one that will aim to create both a sense of community and social environment outside of the ballpark. Marketing executives of the Braves should consider setting up off-site locations so non-game attendees
...very good read. It’s easy to see why Sports Illustrated included it in its collection of the top 100 sports books of all time.
On a scale of one to ten, this book would be an eight since the ending was somewhat slower than the rest of the book. The book is relevant to society today because it explains the difficulties families can face when one member is self absorbed. Warren’s actions caused Paul and many Cubs fans to hate him. Paul could hardly say his name in Calico Rock since he was afraid of what might happen. The book is different from today’s society, however, since baseball records are difficult to break. Many records that stand today are old and new stars to baseball usually do not enter their prime as a rookie. The book can relate well to readers who play sports and understand the game of baseball. Baseball statistics and home runs may bore other people since they have no interest in the subject. All in all, Grisham wrote a great book about baseball and family issues.
Chad Harbach’s The Art of Fielding focuses on Henry, a small town boy that learns the value of life through the sport of baseball. Henry comes from humble beginnings of small town America, but suffers from a case of perfectionism – he will not stop short of achieving total perfection and this will eventually lead to his demise. He meets Mike Schwartz, a college baseball player that convinces him that college baseball is his future. Henry’s curiosity gets the best of him as he stumbles into the dark, cutthroat, and competitive world of college athletics. Once he steps foot in this world, Henry’s hunger for perfection is amplified. He sees the real world of athletics and
Rader, B. G. (1983). American Sports. Englewood Cliffs, NJ United States of America: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
If you like baseball and you need to find a good book, well here is one it's called Shoeless Joe and Me. It's about a kid name Shoeless Joe who's nickname is Joe Jackson, Joe Jackson played on the Chicago white sox in 1919. They were in the World Series but they lost it because of gambling which caused them to lose the series and they were suspended from baseball and could never play professional baseball again. It was Joe Jackson and a couple of his teammates. If you touched a Joe Jackson card you go back in time and change stuff .
For example, Gladwell examines trends in the rosters of the elite Canadian Hockey League, finding that the majority of players were born in January, February, or March. Comparing these dates to the cutoff date for each age division, January 1, Gladwell proves that birthdates impact success, as the majority of hockey players who were older in each age division became successful because of maturing earlier than their younger peers in their age division. In terms of redshirting, Gladwell’s theory implies that a student who enters kindergarten one year older than the rest of their classmates will have a better chance of success due to earlier
Mermal, Allison. "A Positions Against Public Funding of Professional Sports Stadiums." At What Cost. Aug, 5 1998. Available WWW: http://www.macalester.edu/~communic/course_projects/am.html
Nemee, David. “100 Years of Major League Baseball.” Lincolnwood, Illinois: Publications Infernational, Ltd, 200. Print.
Baseball is one of the world's greatest sports and is played almost everywhere in the world. It is also one of the most historic games. The main historic part of baseball deals with the ballparks, the cities, and the teams that have been around for such a long time. Then you have the one and only Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox. Fenway Park is the longest standing and is still being used of all the Major League ballparks in the United States. Throughout the 100 years of Fenway Park's existence it has been built, named, burned down, rebuilt, and a whole lot of adding on to the ballpark.
Jiobu, Robert M., “Racial Inequality in a Public Arena: The Case of Professional Baseball”. Social Forces , Vol. 67, No. 2 (Dec., 1988), pp. 524-534 Oxford University Press
Abstract: Society is affected every day by many different kinds of sports. These sports often govern society's way of life. People all over the nation turn their TVs to sporting events, such as golf, during the weekends. Scott Stossel states that "more than six million Americans enjoy watching golf on the weekends." Parents use sports as a teaching tool for their children. Kids learn teamwork and discipline from team sports programs and sports have also helped many students with their grades. Kids who want to compete in school sports are taught to keep their grades up or they won't be able to play, but the greedy coaches and schools often look around grades to keep their "star athletes" in the games. Adults have been affected by sports in their bank accounts. Tax increases for funding a new stadium, golf course and even school programs have hurt the middle class Americans. Sports have taken control of small communities and soon will take control of society
For most sports fans there is nothing like opening day and a baseball field. In recent years I have over heard several people say Baseball is not the National Pastime or National Game any longer. When I query these people the typical response is Football is our new National pastime/game. Frank Deford (Nov 7, 2012) a writer for Sports Illustrated said, "Baseball is what we used to be. Football is what we have become." I refuse to believe this based on my knowledge of both games. In this paper we will exam the facts and I would submit to you that Baseball is still the National Pastime/Game and it cannot be disputed.