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Re: [Phys-l] TV technology, the World Series and physics

I don't think the statistics are meaningless. Often, the way they are used is meaningless, but one can make a case for comparing "home" batting average with "away" batting average. Also, it seems that the physical difference in the action of a curve ball or slider from a lefty vs. righty and the sight-line of right-handed vs left-handed batters in general would support the differing BA's for a batter facing lefty and righty pitchers. Of course, as in any undetermined but bounded system, there are "low entropy" (threw that curve in for you, JD) players that are equally adept at hitting both. No, BA is not meaningless, especially if you have ever tried to hit a fastball or good curve. The variations in the ball parks simply make the meanings "fuzzy," i.e. that standard deviations are meaningless. Maybe parametric statistics would be better, but the public doesn't understand that.

The field sizes for those sports are uniform, as are the base paths for baseball. However, the enclosure sure makes a difference in some of those football stadiums re: wind and noise. Variations are what make life, sport, and physics interesting, even if you can't reduce it all to "meaningful statistics."

-----Original Message-----
From: phys-l-bounces@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu [mailto:phys-l-
bounces@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu] On Behalf Of Anthony Lapinski
Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2011 12:58 PM
To: phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
Subject: Re: [Phys-l] TV technology, the World Series and physics

Interesting, maybe. Using aluminum bats would also make the game
interesting. But who would like this if only a few teams could use
them?

The fields for football, hockey, basketball, soccer, and tennis are all
uniform. Baseball is different and unique in this regard. But along the
same lines, it is unfair and makes batting statistics meaningless.

Didn't mean to ramble on about this non-physics topic. We can discuss
more
off list.


Forum for Physics Educators <phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu> writes:
On 2011, Oct 20, , at 09:21, Anthony Lapinski wrote:

But to really make the game of baseball more fair, all parks should
be
the
same size. Baseball statistics are inherently not very meaningful.


But does this variation not make the game more interesting?

bc thinks the data can be normalized for the purpose of comparison?
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_______________________________________________
Forum for Physics Educators
Phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
https://carnot.physics.buffalo.edu/mailman/listinfo/phys-l