“Jose Antiqua is up to bat with runners on second and third. Over his nine-year career, when playing at his home ball field and there are two runners in scoring position with two outs after the seventh inning, Jose has a .227 batting average.”
“It’s third and eight with one minute and fourteen seconds to go. Quarterback Fred Leatherman has a nineteen percent completion average on third and long when under two minutes to go in the first half.”
When Michael Jordan averaged 37.1 points per game in 1986-87, his Chicago Bulls were a sub.500, eighth-seeded playoff team that got swept by the Boston Celtics in the first round.
The coldest Superbowl in history was the "Ice Bowl" at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin. At the kickoff it was -13°F degrees below zero (wind chill minus 48) on December 31, 1967.
Many U.S. colleges offer a degree in sports statistics, for instance, Purdue University. Hundreds offer degrees in statistics which can be used to calculate and catalog economics, agriculture, stock performances, weather patterns, and on and on.
Major league batting averages and how the 1950 U.S. housing market compares to today’s are all interesting. While lots of statistical analyses are of trivial or fun-facts, others are of significantly important issues. Here follows a few phenomena on which I wish someone kept stats:
- random acts of kindness
- people wronged who genuinely forgive others
- those who maintain inner peace in the midst of crises
- children who love because they are genuinely loved
- (add your own)
There are lots of wonderful reasons to be alive and relish life. All too often we let the trivial or the negative dominate.
