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