A-Rod. Albert Pujols. Derek Jeter. They are just few of the best baseball players. But without STATISTICS, they would not be evaluated as well as they are evaluated now. Like that, statistics take a vital part of baseball.
I got to know about statistics in baseball when I watched a video about baseball statistics on a plane. And Bill James was explaining about his new method of calculating players' abilities called Win Share. I was fascinated. Since then, Bill James became my role model.
Bill James was born in October 5, 1949. Working in STATS. Inc, he created various formulas calculating the players' abilities such as Runs Created or Win Share.
Runs Created is a formula to calculate individual's ability, and it can be easily calculated by the formula '((Hits+Base on Balls)*Total Bases)/ (At Bat+Base on Balls).' Like its name, Runs Created calculates the scores that the player created. Although there are many variations according to the usage of Runs Created, this formula still remains as the most basic and fundamental formula of Runs Created. Win Share lets people know how the player influences the team's results. It is a very effective way to calculate a player's ability, since it takes pitching, defending, and hitting all into account. With this calculation, it would be found that an all-star player would gather 30 wins every season.
Excluding his achievements in statistics, Bill James is still an accomplished writer about sports. He wrote over two dozen books about sports such as Baseball Abstract or Win Shares. These books scientifically analyze baseball through the use of statistical data.
I idolize Bill James for two things; his achievement in statistics and his continuous effort to achieve his goal. I will always try my best to be an accomplished statistician. But even if I don't, I will still try to resemble Bill James' unlimited effort to achieve his goal.
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