Money, math, and sports

Brains never used to be appreciated by braun, and vice versa. That mindset is coming to an end (has ended) with the increasing amount of money that is being invested in sports entertainment. From the rise of sabremetrics in baseball to the birth of the salary cap in football, sports franchise owners are relying more frequently on the skills of mathmeticians and accountants to help them find both the balance of supply and demand for ticket pricing as well as novel ways to objectively rate the players who provide entertainment.

It is at this crossroad that Michael Lewis (author of Moneyball), finds Shane Battier, the thinking man's basketball player. I had no idea that pro basketball franchises used such advanced metrics in preparing for and analyzing games, until I read the aforementioned column. I used to believe that baseball was the only sport that applied such 'outside-the-box' thinking, but having read this article, I begin to think that all sports will be forced to move in this direction, as the word of an advanced scout will no longer be enough to justify a $100 million contract (see Haynesworth, Albert).