Baseball and Statistics

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Baseball is America’s past time. No two fields are exactly identical. The only identical portion of a baseball field, depending on the league you are in, is the infield. Every Major League Baseball park has the exact same dimensions for the infield, which is a four sided square laid like a diamond with each side being equal to ninety feet. The game of baseball is played between two teams using wood or metal bats, depending on league rules, league regulated sized ball, and baseball gloves. The game is started with the home team taking the field first. The home team will pitch to the visiting team trying to get three outs. Out can be made by a batter swinging and missing on strike three or fielder catching the ball in the air, or off of a bounce and proceed to throw the runner out at the base. After three outs are made the teams swap places and do the same thing over again. When the next team gets three outs, that makes up an inning. Most games are played with nine innings; however there are some younger leagues that just play with six innings. This is the basic structure of a baseball game, but the game of baseball ball is made up of so much more detail. This extra detail is known as statistics. In the 19th century Henry Chadwick started keeping a statistical record of athlete’s achievements. According to Sounders “While covering a game between the Stars and the Excelsiors in South Brooklyn in 1859, Chadwick introduced what many baseball fans, datasticians and historians consider to be his greatest contribution to the game: the boxscore. Adapted from the scorecard used in cricket, the boxscore is a detailed record of the occurrences of the game, including such data as the names of all the players who particip... ... middle of paper ... .... In the book “Lewis chronicled the exploits of Oakland Athletics General Manager Billy Beane, who has used statistical analysis to guide the Athletics to five playoff appearances in the last eight years, despite working with one of the smallest payrolls in Major League Baseball (Bendix, 2009)”. Basic statistics are not always enough to review a team, the deeper you look the more you will find out. The old saying “you can’t judge a book by its cover”, is perfect for evaluating ball players. Works Cited Bendix, Peter. (April 15, 2009). Ask The Professor: What is sabermetrics and why do baseball teams care so much about it?. Retrieve from http://tuftsjournal.tufts.edu/2009/04_2/professor/01/ Souders, Mac. (N.D.). Baseball’s First Publicist Henry Chadwick. Retrieved from http://research.sabr.org/journals/baseballs-first-publicist-henry-chadwick

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