9781422285237 - Analytics: Sports Stats & More

Kahn, who studied finance in college, and Daniel Adler, who majored in economics and served as president of Harvard’s sports analysis collective. Ari Kaplan, who studied math at Caltech, owns his own analytics company, Ariball, and has co- authored five best-selling books on analytics, databases, and baseball. In addition, he teaches an online baseball analytics course. Kaplan suggests that “classes on statistical analysis, big data, and databases would help prepare for a career.” Math departments have many ways to learn how to handle large amounts of data. Computer programming might also be helpful since computers are the

Bill James In the mid-1970s, Bill James was a security guard working the night shift at a pork-and- beans cannery in Kansas. James was a big baseball fan, and absolutely loved statistics. In the age before computers and the Inter- net, James began to gather as many baseball statistics that he could find. After the 1976 season, James wrote and published the 1977 Baseball Abstract: Featuring 18 Categories of Statistical Infor- mation That You Just Can’t Find Anywhere Else . His book was 68 photocopied pages stapled together and cost $3.50. He put an ad in The Sporting News and was thrilled when he sold 75 copies. The following year, James sold 250 cop- ies. By 1982, his annual book was in book- stores nationwide. James then became the creative director of STATS LLC, one of the first national organizations to gather and analyze sports information. Eventually, fans, media companies, and baseball ex- perts were buying James’ book and follow- ing his research. Today, James is regarded as the godfather of sports analytics.

20 C areers O ff the F ield • Analytics: Sports Stats and More