Book Review: Mathematician at the Ballpark

There are very few books with which I can say these two statements and BOTH be true:

1 - I struggled to read this book.
2 - I enjoyed the struggle.

I had to read many of the chapters twice, simply because I'm too dumb to follow Dr. Ross' formulas. However I found his points very informative and I look forward applying much of what I learned to watching a baseball game.

Dr. Ken Ross teaches mathematics at the University of Oregon (and has for 35 years). This fact alone is viewable throughout the entire book. I expected this book to be a baseball guy talking about using math in the sport. Instead, it is a math guy talking about using baseball in the subject. Ross is pretty heavy on the math terms in the book but he talks enough baseball to keep the "mathematically challenged" reader's attention.

The book begins extremely basic! Enough so that I thought I had had enough after 2 chapters. Thankfully, I said to myself, "I'll give it one more chapter." That was when things started flying between my frontal lobe and the pages of this book. After a chapter about basic batting stats and a chapter about expectations, Ross spends the next several chapters looking at probabilities and correct ways they are used in baseball as well as incorrect ways (a few of which I disagree with, but I'll leave that to the reader).

I recommend this book for those baseball fans who frequently are asking themselves "What if...". Ross has a section on what if the world series was longer/shorter. He also experiments with conditional probabilities among several aspects on and off the field (In a chapter that is cleverly titled, Would the Yankees win if Steinbrenner is gone?). My favorite chapter was his chapter regarding streaks. Ross gives several formulas for hitting streaks, winning streaks, attendance streaks, and hot dog selling streaks. The math isn't necessarily the fascinating part of that chapter, but the factors around the streaks are what fascinated me.

One of the more humorous chapters was Ross' chapter on betting on baseball. IMHO, Ross made a huge mistake. He gave away a "sure fire, hands down, flawless way" to make money by gambling on baseball. After thinking about his idea for a few days I felt as if his plan wasn't "flawless" but I did see how he had a good "probability" of succeeding. That being said, it was very uncomfortable and I thought that chapter was a bit out of place. I don't plan on putting a dime on the Cubs and a quarter on the Red Sox anyways, so I skipped the last part of that chapter.

It is hard to summarize the content of this book without typing a bunch of math formulas your way, so here's my final thoughts. This book combines math and baseball to develop a "probability" thinking fan. While Ross isn't correct with all of his thinking, I think most fans of Math and Baseball would enjoy this read. This book should be on the shelf of those fans who like to predict outcomes or gamble. If you're not one of those, I think you'll at least find this book an aid in helping you think outside the [batter's] box.

Weaknesses:
-It's hard to read (vocabulary speaking)
-A halfway misleading title
-There is not one thesis of the book, just a bunch of collected ideas (bad in my opinion, some may like that though)

Strengths:
-Very to the point, no beating around the bushes anywhere
-Not solely about "Number Crunching"
-Ross answers the "What if" questions other people are afraid to answer

Overall:
6.5/10

To buy this book or for more reviews, click below:

Mathematician at the Ballpark, by Ken Ross