The major league baseball attractor

被引:3
|
作者
White, D. [1 ]
机构
[1] Roosevelt Univ, Sch Sci & Math, 430 S Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60605 USA
关键词
Chaos theory attractor; ergodic state function; major league baseball;
D O I
10.1080/09720502.2007.10700489
中图分类号
O1 [数学];
学科分类号
0701 ; 070101 ;
摘要
In the following work we regard any given Major League Baseball game as constituting a dynamic system, characterized by a sequence of inherently unpredictable events (the results stemming from pitches to batters, mainly). Hence, and also due to the game's extreme sensitivity to initial conditions (imagine, for example, attempting to play the game with a ball whose coefficient of restitution approaches one, i.e., a superball; pitchers, infielders and fans close to the field would become especially at risk for serious injury or death from the missiles leaving the home plate area at well over 200 mph; games played in indoor stadia would look more like some wild form of pinball than baseball, games in general would be interminable, and all structures as part of all ballparks would be in jeopardy), Chaos theory applies to the game of baseball in classic fashion, the ordered end of its spectrum represented by the sublime beauty of the 1-0 pitching duel and the chaotic end by the "Keystone Cops-like" performances resulting in the 20 or 30 or even 40-plus run games. Concomitant with extant chaos is the system's "attractor", which is representative of an underlying order associated with the system. We will focus upon the "essential product" of the Major League Baseball game, i.e., the scoring of the run. Specifically, we seek to identify a statistical model for the runs-per-game frequency distribution, which is to say a "Universal Function" to which said frequency distribution tends for any Major League Baseball team, any year. Nine recent Chicago Cubs teams (the 1995-2003 Cubs) along with all their opponents over a total of 1456 games provide the data from which such " Universal Function" as mentioned above is derived with approximately 98% confidence. In order to be consistent with the root philosophical idea as to the applicability of Chaos Theory, we will call the above-mentioned Universal Function the "Major League Baseball Attractor" in the sense (as will be statistically shown with high confidence) that over a large number of games the runs-per-game frequency distribution is expected to be "attracted (inexorably) towards" the derived Universal Function. Said attractor, however, is an "attractor" of a frequency distribution only, not of the game of baseball itself.
引用
收藏
页码:229 / 244
页数:16
相关论文
共 50 条
  • [1] Major League Baseball Attendance and the Role of Fantasy Baseball
    Nesbit, Todd M.
    King-Adzima, Kerry A.
    [J]. JOURNAL OF SPORTS ECONOMICS, 2012, 13 (05) : 494 - 514
  • [2] Lifecycle demand for Major League Baseball
    Ahn, Seung C.
    Lee, Young H.
    [J]. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPORT FINANCE, 2007, 2 (02): : 79 - 93
  • [3] The Impact of Temperature on Major League Baseball
    Koch, B. L. D.
    Panorska, A. K.
    [J]. CUR QUARTERLY, 2013, 34 (02) : 21 - 21
  • [4] SALARY DISCRIMINATION IN MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
    MOGULL, RG
    [J]. REVIEW OF BLACK POLITICAL ECONOMY, 1975, 5 (03): : 269 - 279
  • [5] THE HOME ADVANTAGE IN MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
    Jones, Marshall B.
    [J]. PERCEPTUAL AND MOTOR SKILLS, 2015, 121 (03) : 791 - 804
  • [6] Shirking in Major League Baseball Revisited
    Krautmann, Anthony C.
    Donley, Thomas D.
    [J]. JOURNAL OF SPORTS ECONOMICS, 2009, 10 (03) : 292 - 304
  • [7] PAY AND PERFORMANCE IN MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
    SCULLY, GW
    [J]. AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW, 1974, 64 (06): : 915 - 930
  • [8] Epidemiology of Major League Baseball Injuries
    Posner, Matthew
    Cameron, Kenneth L.
    Wolf, Jennifer Moriatis
    Belmont, Philip J., Jr.
    Owens, Brett D.
    [J]. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SPORTS MEDICINE, 2011, 39 (08): : 1676 - 1680
  • [9] Location and attendance in major league baseball
    Winfree, JA
    Mccluskey, JJ
    Mittelhammer, RC
    Fort, R
    [J]. APPLIED ECONOMICS, 2004, 36 (19) : 2117 - 2124
  • [10] Facial trauma in the major league baseball
    Sifuentes-Cervantes, Jose S.
    Perez, Laura I.
    Bravo-Liranza, Valeria M.
    Martinez-Rovira, Antonio
    Castro-Nunez, Jaime
    Guerrero, Lidia M.
    [J]. ORAL SURGERY ORAL MEDICINE ORAL PATHOLOGY ORAL RADIOLOGY, 2024, 137 (05): : 476 - 485