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Monday, July 14, 2008

Statistically Speaking: World Famous StatSpeak Roundtable: July 14

With Pizza Cutter, Eric Seidman and ol’ busselfutt himself...Bill James.

Question #2: With instant replay on pace for an August 1st trial run, is there any merit to the inevitable dissenting opinions as to the purity of the game and such? Or is this hands down a great idea in the sense that it will hopefully put an end to all of the disputed home run calls?

Bill James: Well, thank you for presenting me with two really horrible options there. The “purity” of the game vs. an end to all disputed home run calls.

I don’t know. I don’t think people pay money to see umpires make mistakes, and I don’t think it is fair to umpires to leave them in a position where everybody gets a better look at the play than they do. Do you guys use spell check, or do you turn it off and insist that the public get to see that you can’t spell “territory”, or “occurred”, or “amature”, or whatever it is that you can’t spell? I need all the help I can get. Do you celebrate the fact that the good people of Florida can’t figure out how to count their votes within a few hundred thousand, or do you wish they would figure this out and stop busselfutting the elections? I’m guessing that most people prefer to have as much help as they can to get things right.

Repoz Posted: July 14, 2008 at 06:21 PM | 12 comment(s)
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1. cardsfanboy Posted: July 14, 2008 at 06:38 PM (#2856299)

Bill James: If you’re rooting for underdogs, who could be doggier than Ryan Ludwick. Nobody would have predicted that he would be on a major league roster this year, or, for that matter, any other year, or that he would be in the starting lineup regularly. Or ever. The All-Star Game? Yeah, right.

Hi Bill. :)

2. Rich Rifkin Posted: July 14, 2008 at 06:48 PM (#2856313)

"Do you guys use spell check, or do you turn it off and insist that the public get to see that you can’t spell “territory”, or “occurred”, or “amature”, or whatever it is that you can’t spell?"

For the record, it's territory, occurred and armature.

3. Monty Posted: July 14, 2008 at 06:49 PM (#2856314)

For the record, it's territory, occurred and armature.

Or possibly amateur.

4. rembini06 Posted: July 14, 2008 at 06:52 PM (#2856317)

I bet Ryan Ludwick had an amazing 30th birthday party yesterday.

5. Vaux, A.B.D. Posted: July 14, 2008 at 07:03 PM (#2856328)

I thought James was a Republican.

6. Walt Davis Posted: July 14, 2008 at 07:08 PM (#2856331)

Hi Bill. :)

Presumably he meant "nobody in his or her right mind" :-)

I thought James was a Republican.

Shocking as it is to many of us, there are some Republicans who would like to see votes counted correctly. Granted, none of them are on Karl Rove's Christmas card list and Dick Armey has drawn Texas Congressional districts in a way to make sure the votes of the 12 Texas Republicans who hold that view are meaningless, but nevertheless they exist.

7. Biff, Red Sox Jinx Posted: July 14, 2008 at 07:15 PM (#2856340)

Hey, could someone link...oh, never mind.

8. John DiFool2 Posted: July 14, 2008 at 07:20 PM (#2856345)

Shocking as it is to many of us, there are some Republicans who would like to see votes counted correctly. Granted, none of them are on Karl Rove's Christmas card list and Dick Armey has drawn Texas Congressional districts in a way to make sure the votes of the 12 Texas Republicans who hold that view are meaningless, but nevertheless they exist.

Back foul fiend of the night! Stay buried forever in the Off-Topic Cemetery (along with that 3,000 post thread from 2 months ago) and trouble us no more!

9. Ricky C. Posted: July 14, 2008 at 07:21 PM (#2856347)

Three questions? That's it?

10. Monty Posted: July 14, 2008 at 07:23 PM (#2856350)

I really enjoyed the Washington State Governor's race a couple of years ago, where every recount switched the winner between Christine Gregoire (D) and Dino Rossi (R). (EDIT: details here -- at one point the official margin was ten votes!)The fun part was how the candidates alternated between "We need to make sure every single vote is counted. Count 'em again!" and "We've had a number of recounts and the sensible thing to do is accept this latest recount". In my opinion, the margin of votes was simply within the margin of error for any vote-counting method they tried, so there was no way to find out who "really" won. Anyway, my point is that in that one, the Republican was the one pushing for proper vote-counting. Half the time, anyway.

11. Repoz Posted: July 14, 2008 at 07:43 PM (#2856370)

Three questions? That's it?

The other seven will be spread out in the Bill James Online, The Bill James Handbook 2009, The Bill James Gold Mine 2009, The Bill James Street & Smith 2009 relaunch and the Bill James Hot Line Service.

12. The Most Interesting Man In The World Posted: July 14, 2008 at 07:47 PM (#2856373)

The other seven will be spread out in the Bill James Online, The Bill James Handbook 2009, The Bill James Gold Mine 2009, The Bill James Street & Smith 2009 relaunch and the Bill James Hot Line Service.

You forgot the Bill James Historical Abstract, online version.

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Monday, July 14, 2008

Statistically Speaking: World Famous StatSpeak Roundtable: July 14

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