How Gamblers, Managers, and Sports Enthusiasts Use Mathematics in Baseball, Basketball, and Football
Mathletics is a remarkably entertaining book that shows readers how to use simple mathematics to analyze a range of statistical and probability-related questions in professional baseball, basketball, and football, and in sports gambling. How does professional baseball evaluate hitters? Is a singles hitter like Wade Boggs more valuable than a power hitter like David Ortiz? Should NFL teams pass or run more often on first downs? Could professional basketball have used statistic to expose crooked referee Tim Donaghy? Does money buy performance in professional sports.
Click Here to download Mathletics book file
“Winston has an uncanny knack for bringing the game alive through the fascinating mathematical questions be explores. He gets inside professional sports like no other writer i know. Mathletic is like a seat at courtside.”
-Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks
“Wayne Winston’s Mathletics combines rigorous analytical methodologies with a very inquisitive approach. This should be a required starting point for anyone desiring to use mathematics in the world of sports.”
-KC Joyner, author of Blindsided: Why the Left Tackle Is Overrated and Other Contrarian Football Thoughts
“People who want the details on the analysis of baseball need to read Mathletics. This book provides the statistics behind Moneyball.”
-Pete Palmer, coeditor of The ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia and The ESPN Pro Football Encyclopedia
“Winston has brought together the latest thinking on sports mathematics in one comprehensive place. This volume is perfect for someone seeking a general overview or who wants to dive into advanced thinking on the latest sports-analytics topics.”
-Daryl Morey, general manager of the Houston Rockets
“Mathletics offers insights into the mathematical analysis of three major sports and sports gambling. The basketball and sports bookies sections are particularly interesting and loaded with in-depth examples and analysis. The author’s passion seems to jump right off the page.”
-Michael Huber, Muhlenberg College
“I really enjoyed this unique book, as will anyone who is a serious sports fan with some interest in mathematics. Winston is very knowledgeable about baseball, basketball, and football, and about the mathematical techniques needed to analyze a multitude of questions that arise in them. He does a very good job of explaining complex mathematical ideas in a simple way.”
-George L. Nemhauser, Georgia Institute of Technology
[...] author, Wayne Winston, was one of my favorite professors and has a knack for looking at new ways to quantify things and [...]
Pingback by Love sports, love math? « Datasets — September 18, 2009 @ 11:41 am
[...] Winston, author of famous textbooks in operations research and a new book on math and sports, and sports statistics/decision making guru, has a column in the Huffington Post, which certainly [...]
Pingback by Michael Trick’s Operations Research Blog : Winston, Sports, Statistics, and Decision Making — November 16, 2009 @ 11:26 am
I believe that Mathletics will be one of my favorite books of all time, particularly with the
spreadsheets downloaded from the website. It is not without its errors, however.
I don’t think that it’s proper to remove Bond’s intentional walks in the analysis on page 36.
He would have done something with those at bats, and since they almost certainly came with men
on base, he might very well have done better than his average plate appearance.
On page 38, Therefore with Pujols… should be without. I’m sure that’s been mentioned before.
I’ll be in touch again.
Mike Gudyka
St. Charles, IL
Comment by Mike Gudyka — January 11, 2010 @ 2:20 pm
[...] Matheletics (Prof. Winston, whom I had the pleasure of meeting in November. Interesting for math and analytics buffs) [...]
Pingback by Back from hibernation « Missing Economy of Words — January 19, 2010 @ 3:31 pm