Scorecasting

Like the subject line says, just like freakonomics but for sports. Provides interesting ways of using data and probability along with logic and a basic understanding of human psychology to look at various events in sports from a different angle. Quick and easy read.

Sowohl für Sportinteressierte, als auch für Interessenten von Verhaltensökonomie ist das ein wunderbares Buch. Den einen schenkt es sehr coole Infos über den Sport, den Sie lieben, den anderen mal eine erfrischende Abwechslung zu den typischen VWL-„wie bewege ich Leute dazu, ihr Geld sinnvoll zu investieren“ Use Cases.Einziges persönliches Manko: SEHR viel Baseball.

It's tempting to write Freakonomics but with sports and say , "No mas. I'm done.", but Scorecasting is so much more than that. Sports are everywhere. People wake up and go to work where we talk sports, we listen to it on the radio, and then we go home to watch Sportscenter. We have the opinions of so many experts, analyzers, and former players that you would think that we all would understand everything about sports. It's kind of funny that could be so wrong.Scorecasting isn't a book that tells you what to believe. It's a friend in a bar suggesting that the Patriots got hosed in Superbowl XLII and would have won if the refs followed the rulebook to the letter of the law. It's the kind of friend that mentions that human element in referring is alive and well and furthermore we as fans want it to exist. It's the person that mentions that the current failings of some African-American coaches in NFL are actually a good and progressive thing.Sports have so many sayings and beliefs that are based on numbers (offense wins games, but defense wins championships, umpires have high strike zones), but for how many of them have you actually seen the statistics that back these claims? How many times have you heard an announcer say, "Coach X should have played the percentages and punted"? It is questions like these that Scorecasting tries to uncover.Granted, I will admit that some of the material in Scorecasting feels underdeveloped, but overall every idea and topic is well researched and presented. The book has a heavy reliance on statistics and analysis to support every claim. The book challenges so many different philosophies and common notions in sports that it's bound to cause a few arguments, and I don't believe that there can be a greater mark of excellence for a sports book than that.TL;DR Interesting ideas, well thought out arguments, and a light and enjoyable read. It was worth every cent .

I had just read a chapter about golfers when I watched the last day of the Open. The book explained that golfers are more likely to leave a birdie putt short but be more aggressive with a par putt and risk going past the hole. I watched and what the book said happened on hole after hole. You'll have to read the book to understand why.There is also info about football but if you don't understand American sports you would find huge chunks of the book a mystery. If you understand balls and strikes, the strike zone,punting on fourth down etc, you'll love it. If you follow the more traditional British sports including snooker and darts, you'd be better off with The Hidden Mathematics of Sport. Personally I love both of them.

In line with Freakeconomics but related to sport events and activities.interesting but difficult to understand if you do not possess a sport vocabulary (more precisely about baseball)