Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Alternate Baseball Universes

Posted by kdawson on from the say-it-ain't-so-joe dept.

Jamie found a NYTimes op-ed by a grad student and a professor from Cornell, outlining some research they did into alternate baseball universes. The goal was to find out how unlikely in fact was Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak, played out in the 1941 season. No one since has even come close to that record. The math guys ran simulations of the entire history of baseball from 1885 on — 10,000 of them. For each simulation they put each player up to the plate for each at-bat in each game in each year, just like it happened; and they rolled the dice on him, based on his actual hitting stats for that season. (Their algorithm sounds far simpler than whatever the Strat-O-Matic guys use.) The result: Joltin' Joe's record is not merely likely, it's basically a sure thing. Every alternate universe produced a streak of 39 games or better; one reached 109 games. Joe DiMaggio was not the likeliest player in the history of the game to accomplish the record, not by a long shot.

11 of 229 comments (clear)

  1. How to Make Baseball Even MORE Boring? by morari · · Score: 3, Funny

    Talk about the statistics of anyone at bat..

    --
    "He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
    1. Re:How to Make Baseball Even MORE Boring? by pchan- · · Score: 5, Funny

      You don't understand. Baseball is so boring, the fans find the statistics exciting!

    2. Re:How to Make Baseball Even MORE Boring? by garett_spencley · · Score: 5, Funny

      I was once at a friend's BBQ and a lot of the other guests were really into sports and talking a lot about their various sporting events etc. I made a comment about how baseball was one of those sports that is fun to play but boring as hell to watch. One of the guys responded with, simply, "I disagree". To which I replied "You're right. It's pretty boring to play too." He wasn't very amused.

      Talk about a great way to make an awkward social event even more awkward :(

    3. Re:How to Make Baseball Even MORE Boring? by jd · · Score: 2, Funny

      Do you have the statistics to prove that?

      --
      It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  2. Re:Deistic proof? by Loadmaster · · Score: 3, Funny

    What would God need with an impressive hitting streak? Besides, Jesus can't hit a curve ball so he'd never make it anyway.

  3. i came here to make an insightful comment by circletimessquare · · Score: 4, Funny

    unfortunately, not many of my comments are insightful, so with my batting average, you will have to refer to a parallel universe

    there you will find that this comment contains something worthwhile reading. sorry

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  4. Re:Deistic proof? by TheRealMindChild · · Score: 2, Funny

    Apparently, Joeboo can't either :(

    --

    "When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
  5. Anohter unreported weird fact by mrfantasy · · Score: 5, Funny

    In every simulation, a ground ball went between Bill Buckner's legs in the 1986 World Series.

    --

    -- Of course I'm paranoid. I'm a sysadmin.

  6. it's basically a sure thing. by iminplaya · · Score: 2, Funny

    Yeah, and so is the Cubs winning the World Series more than once in a hundred years

    --
    What?
  7. I've switched domains... by xactuary · · Score: 2, Funny
    I've switched domains to operating systems and can now say that it took 42 googleplex simulations before I found a parallel universe where Vista doesn't suck. As you would expect, that's also the only parallel universe that had Steve Jobs throwing chairs.

    --
    Say hello to my little sig.
  8. Re:If its so likely, they why hasn't it happened? by Kamineko · · Score: 4, Funny

    Like Einstein said: "God does not play baseball!"

    I think.