Fundamentals of Management, 11/e

The Business of Baseball Topic: Big data

Baseball has long been called “America’s national pastime” (although according to a Harris Interactive survey, the NFL has been, hands down, the favorite sport of Americans).65 Now, the game of baseball can probably be better described as America’s number crunchers. For instance, the general manager of the New York Mets, explained the team’s decision to trade one of its best players to another team. “I’m happy with the analysis we used and the strategy we pursued.” As he made this announcement, three members of his baseball operations staff stood by with their laptops open and ready to provide any needed data. A baseball writer has described the sport’s move to data analysis this way, “Don’t overlook ...