Mathletics: How Gamblers, Managers, and Sports Enthusiasts Use Mathematics in Baseball, Basketball, and Football

Mathletics: How Gamblers, Managers, and Sports Enthusiasts Use Mathematics in Baseball, Basketball, and Football, 9780691139135 (069113913X), Princeton Press, 2009

If you have picked up this book you surely love sports and you probably like math. You may have read Michael Lewis’s great book Moneyball, which describes how the Oakland A’s used mathematical analysis to help them compete successfully with the New York Yankees even though the average annual payroll for the A’s is less than 40 percent of that of the Yankees. After reading Moneyball, you might have been curious about how the math models described in the book actually work. You may have heard how a former night watchman, Bill James, revolutionized the way baseball professionals evaluate players. You probably want to know exactly how James and other “sabermetricians” used mathematics to change the way hitters, pitchers, and fielders are evaluated. You might have heard about the analysis of Berkeley economic professor David Romer that showed that NFL teams should rarely punt on fourth down. How did Romer use mathematics to come up with his controversial conclusion? You might have heard how Mark Cuban used math models (and his incredible business savvy) to revitalize the moribund Dallas Mavericks franchise. What mathematical models does Cuban use to evaluate NBA players and lineups? Maybe you bet once in a while on NFL games and wonder whether math can help you do better financially. How can math determine the true probability of a team winning a game, winning the NCAA tournament, or just covering the point spread? Maybe you think the NBA could have used math to spot Tim Donaghy’s game fixing before being informed about it by the FBI. This book will show you how a statistical analysis would have “red flagged” Donaghy as a potential fixer.

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