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Saturday, July 14, 2007

Bivariate Baseball Score Plot

It all started at the All-Star break of the last season (2006). The Pirate fans everywhere noticed that the Pittsburgh Pirates have lost many, many one-run games. (Games decided by one run)

They were 27-54 (.333) at the end of the first half, and they were 8-23 (.258) in one-run games. Obviously, the winning percentage (.258) and win loss difference (-15) were worst in the Majors. Then I thought, "How can I show the Pirates' record to accentuate their terrible performance in those one-run games?"

After some discussions with my colleagues, I came to the conclusion that the best way was to show everything. Not summaries, but every single datum = game. After some more discussions with the colleagues, I created what would become the Bivariate Baseball Score Plots. (And the Team was formed.)

So at the heart of this project, there is a dedicated and irate Pirate fan in Nashville. Well, actually our team of four happens to have 2 Pirate fans. The other two are a Brewer fan and a guy who doesn't care much about baseball.

Let's go Bucs!

1 comments:

beetama74 said...

First Half here isnt "pre-All Star".

It's simply when 50% of the games are played. i.e., 81 games in recent years.

Split using the All Star Game requires entering the date of the All Star Game for each year, and that was a bit too much work for any of us.