Anthology of Statistics in Sports (ASA-SIAM Series on Statistics and Applied Probability) [Paperback]

Jim Albert (Editor), Jay Bennett (Editor), James J. Cochran (Editor)

Book Description

Series: ASA-SIAM Series on Statistics and Applied Probability | Publication Date: April 27, 2005

The unlikely worlds of sports fans and statisticians collide in this interesting and accessible collection of previously published articles on the use of statistics to analyze sports, which the editors have thoughtfully culled from a variety of American Statistical Association (ASA) publications. Heavily weighted in the areas of competition (rating players and teams, evaluating strategies for victory), the articles vary in mathematical complexity, but most will be accessible to readers with a general knowledge of statistics. Newly written material from the editors and other notable contributors introduces each section of the book, and a chapter with suggestions on using the articles in the classroom is included. Organized by sport to make it easy for readers to find the papers in their particular areas of interest, Anthology of Statistics in Sports contains separate sections devoted to the major North American team sports of baseball, football, basketball, and ice hockey. Two additional sections cover miscellaneous sports and more general issues related to sports and statistics. This book grew from the efforts of members of the ASA Section on Statistics in Sports, which is dedicated to promoting high professional standards in the application of statistics to sports and fostering statistical education in sports. This book will appeal to statisticians with an interest in sports who could use the chapters as engaging classroom examples. Sports fans with some understanding of statistics also will find the book of interest, especially the chapters written at a modest mathematical level.

Editorial Reviews

Book Description

Sport and statistics collide in this collection of articles ( from American Statistical Association publications) on using statistics to analyze sport. Most of the articles will be accessible to readers with a general knowledge of statistics. New material from the editors and other notable contributors introduces each section of the book,

About the Author

About the Editors: Jim Albert is a Professor of Mathematics and Statistics at Bowling Green State University. His research interests include Bayesian inference and model selection for generalized linear models, statistical education, and the application of statistical methods to sports. He is a Fellow of the ASA and is a member of the Mathematical Association of America. Jay Bennett is a Principal Scientist with Telcordia Technologies and has experience in traffic engineering, network reliability, and software reliability. His research interests include quality of service metrics and applications of statistical methods to sports and entertainment. He is a Fellow of the ASA and is active in the ASA Section on Statistics in Sports. James J. Cochran is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Marketing and Analysis at Louisiana Tech University. His research interests include statistical methods (particularly general linear models), statistical learning, and stochastic combinatorial optimization. He is a past President of the ASA Section on Statistics in Sports and the current President of the INFORMS Section on OR in Sports.

Product Details

• Paperback: 322 pages
• Publisher: Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematic (April 27, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0898715873
• ISBN-13: 978-0898715873
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,080,944 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Book on stats ever, May 24, 2005

By 

M. Clark - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Anthology of Statistics in Sports (ASA-SIAM Series on Statistics and Applied Probability) (Paperback)

This book will do more for your knowledge of statistics in sports than any book ever - especially the portions written by Dr. Cochran.

After re-reading the book, I can't understand why Dr. Cochran has not been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

My Yellow Highlighter has been drained dry ....

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Statistician's Delight, January 22, 2008

By 

Charles Pavitt - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Anthology of Statistics in Sports (ASA-SIAM Series on Statistics and Applied Probability) (Paperback)

This project, jointly produced by two academic associations, consists of reprints of previously-published articles in four statistics journals (Journal of the American Statistical Association, The American Statistician, Chance, and Proceedings of the Statistics in Sports Section of the American Statistical Association), organized into separate sections for four relatively well-studied sports (football, baseball, basketball, hockey, and a one for less-studies sports such as soccer, tennis, and track, among others). As such, it provides an opportunity to step back and see what has been accomplished in the statistical study of sports. To be sure, what is offered here provides only a sliver of statistical baseball research articles, ignoring all that has been performed in other academic fields (in particular physical education, psychology, sociology, and business administration) let alone outside of academia. Nonetheless, some of the chosen articles should be viewed as essential reading for any serious student of the topic, with the proviso that the statistical analyses can be very rough sledding.
Baseball is the easiest of the "major" sports to submit to statistical analysis, and it receives the most varied attention here, with entries relevant to the statistical independence of half-innings from one another, the impact of a game event on the probability of a victory or defeat, how uninformative most "breakdown indices" such as performance with runners in scoring position are, and why we can't do much with batting performance over a small number of at bats, and comparisons of performance over decades of play, among others. Football is only represented by articles on prediction of game outcomes and field goal kicking; basketball by prediction of tournament outcomes and "the hot hand" (I found the three on the latter topic particularly interesting); hockey by team ratings, Stanley Cup playoff outcomes, and a very provocative piece comparing overtime with shootouts for deciding ties, and soccer by team ratings and the effect of player ejection on the odds of winning.