A Mathematician at the Ballpark

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY JUN 21, 2004

This math book for baseball fans is a hardcore yet accessible volume and serves as an entertaining introduction to the "sweet science" of probability. Ross (Elementary Analysis: The Theory of Calculus), a math professor at the University of Oregon, is baseball crazed he swears that his early love of the game made him "comfortable with, and reasonably proficient at, elementary probability." He successfully sets out to introduce basic concepts and use them "to explain some results that have interesting applications for baseball." A chapter titled "Will the Yankees Win if Steinbrenner Is Gone?" is a delightful introduction to the concept of conditional probabilities. In "Who's the Best Hitter," he presents a fascinating look at how statistical measurements of a batter's offensive contribution, including "Slugging Percentage" and "On-Base Plus Slugging," show how two outstanding young outfielders, Yankee Hideki Matsui and Mariner Ichiro Suzuki, had "amazingly close" 2003 seasons offensively, although Ichiro was widely thought to have had a substantially better season than Matsui. And in "What Would Pete Rose Do?" Ross cleverly examines the concept of "double or nothing" and statistically proves that no preplanned strategy can make a losing situation into a winning one. Overall, Ross's book lovingly supports his assertion that "robability is a wonderful window into the workings of baseball, gambling, and, sometimes it seems to me, life itself."