Last week I was in Baltimore, MD, where I was invited to present my new formula at the Joint Mathematical Meeting of the American Math Society and the Mathematics Association of America. As discussed in previous blogs, I developed the following new formula to predict a team’s winning percentage: Winning Percentage = .000683*(RS – RA) …
On January 8, 2014, the voting results of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) for Baseball’s Hall of Fame were announced. Unlike 2013 when no player was elected, 2014 elected three new members to the HOF. They are Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and Frank Thomas. Maddux was the top vote-getter appearing on 555 of …
Before presenting the arguments given by the people who believe PED users do not belong in the Hall of Fame, let’s recall the only instructions given to the Hall of Fame voters are, “Voting shall be based upon the player’s record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character, and contributions to the team(s) on which the player …
In March of 2006, the MLB appointed Sen. George Mitchell to investigate the history of PEDs in baseball. The Mitchell Report was released in December of 2007. Besides naming several offenders, the report said, “The illegal use of performance-enhancing substances poses a serious threat to the integrity of the game. Widespread use by players of such substances unfairly disadvantaged the honest …
On January 8, 2014 the votes cast by several hundred baseball writers for players to be admitted to Baseball’s Hall of Fame will be announced. Many of the candidates played during what is called “The Steroid Era.” Each voter had to decide not only does a player’s statistics merit their vote but how should a …
My review of 2013 will follow the same format as the song Calendar Girl sung by Neil Sedaka in 1961. We will begin with January, 2013 and end with December, 2013. ESPN, in January, 2013, conducted a survey to see which teams are most and least improved before the start of the 2013 season. The …
I would like to begin by looking back at the predictions I made at the All-Star break on which teams would make the playoffs. These predictions were based on using the formula I developed to predict a team’s expected winning percentage based on their runs scored (RS) and runs allowed (RA). The formula is: A …
With the book done, nurturing the book was next. Nurturing involves creating value-added tools to enhance the book and to make decisions on how to market the book. Marketing the book is Step 20 in the publishing process. In my first posting, I mentioned how I was forced to streamline my book. Originally, at …
The chapters of the book are now complete. At this point each chapter has only text in it. The figures and tables are not included; figure numbers and table numbers are inserted as space holders in the text. A new person enters the process. His name is Jeremy Horsefield, the copy editor. He is a …
In the spring of 2008, my colleague, Professor Larry Levine, knowing how much baseball was part of my life, suggested that I offer a course which introduces a student to the area of mathematics called sabermetrics. Sabermetrics uses statistics to replace subjective decisions in baseball with objective decisions. This course would be offered as part of …