Rocket Science vs. Barry Bonds

Ray Radlein writes "How about a good old-fashioned Sports story? With its multitude of different statistical measures, baseball has always had the highest Geek Quotient of any major sport. Alpha Geeks of Baseball have included former relief pitcher Rob Murphy, who put his Computer Science degree to good use writing software to evaluate thoroughbred race horses, and Boston Red Sox ace and probable future Hall of Famer Curt Schilling, who not only runs a company that makes hex-based war games, but once got embroiled in an on-field feud due to Everquest. However, Baseball Geeks have a new hero to look up to: Jason Szuminski, who on Sunday became the first MIT graduate to pitch in a major league baseball game. His degree in Aerospace Engineering must have stood him in good stead as he observed the ballistic trajectory of a Barry Bonds fly ball which just barely stayed inside the Padres' new stadium."

Comments

There is a future in Baseball for Geeks

[Pave Low]

and it's not on the field. It's in the front office.

The generation of Moneyball General Managers is here. Billy Beane, John DePodesta (Harvard), Theo Epstein (Yale) are paving the way for seamheads who know baseball and use statistical analysis to build their teams.

Now, there's hope for geeks with math and statistics degrees who want to break into baseball.

Re:sequence

[aridhol]

But Alexa determines rank by the installation of spyware. Most slashdotters know enough about spyware to not have Alexa installed.

Re:Most Geek Sport - I think not

[Speed Racer]

Well, there are only two countries where the teams actually are based but Major League Baseball players have been born in the following countries: United States, Australia, Bahamas, Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Curacao, Dominican Republic, England, France, Germany, Holland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Panama, Scotland, South Korea, Virgin Islands, Venezuela, W.Germany, Norway, Wales, Sweden, Afghanistan, Spain , Greece , Taiwan, Philippines, Russia, Ukraine, Czechoslovakia, Jamaica, Poland, Aruba, Okinawa , Russia , South Vietnam, Denmark, Switzerland, Singapore, China, Austria, Belgium, British Honduras, Finland, Spain, Netherlands , American Samoa, Honduras,

Re:Most Geek Sport - I think not

[rm007]

I don't know why I am responding to an AC, but for the record, and to clear this up once and for all, the World Series is not named so as to imply global significance, its orginal sponsor was a newspaper called the New York World.

Re:Most Geek Sport - I think not

[AaronBS]

World Series is not named so as to imply global significance, its orginal sponsor was a newspaper called the New York World.

Actually a quick google search reveals otherwise.

What about Curt?

[SuperBanana]

The guy that Schilling played everquest with, Doug Glanville has got to be the reigning baseball alpha geek

How about Curt Schilling himself, who carries a powerbook on the road and has quicktime clips and a database of hundreds of batters?

Reportedly he also spent time on a famous red sox chat board the night before he signed with the sox, trying to make up his mind whether he should sign...and convince everyone he really was Curt Schilling(he managed to, after instantly returning questions on his career stats that, according to friends, would have taken a "good baseball researcher" at least 5-10 minutes to find).

He finished up VERY late that night(well, morning) by saying essentially "Thanks, I've decided to sign with the sox, I've always heard red sox fans were the most knowledgeable, you guys have proved it". A few hours later(heh) at the press conference, John Henry(who also logged in at one point) joked(along the lines of) "and in Curt's contract is a clause prohibiting him from staying up past midnight talking on internet chat boards the day before a game."

Re:WHAT AN IDIOT

[Omerna]

It was invented to keep the team in the field from getting two outs whenever the bases were loaded or there were men on 1st and 2nd and the batter popped up in the infield (or shallow outfield, umpire's disgression).

The reasoning was: the runners had no chance to get out of a double play. The fielder could choose to catch the ball (and double up the runner) or drop the ball (and make an easy double play). The runner was damned if he ran to break up the DP or damned if stayed on base to keep from getting doubled up. Now the team in the field just gets one (automatic) out.

But I guess you probably weren't serious.