On Slate, Bill James offers the formula he uses to determine when a basketball game is over: “Take the number of points one team is ahead. Subtract three. Add a half-point if the team that is ahead has the ball, and subtract a half-point if the other team has the ball. Square that. If the result is greater than the number of seconds left in the game, the lead is safe.” (If you’re a Knicks fan, the answer is, “don’t ask.”) Fun, if not baseball related. Alas, there’s no version for the pastime.
Over and Out
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8 comments… add one
As a lifelong Soxfan I have learned that there is no such formula in baseball: the game is over when the game is over. It’s really very simple.
i know i’m not a math wiz yf, but i’m afraid by the time i did the calculations the game would be over anyway…
sf sounding like yogi
dc probably haven’t seen many basketball games, because the last minute takes about half an hour..
That’s the great thing about baseball. Even when down 10-0, with one out left, it’s entirely possible to win. Timed sports suffer from the lack of this possibility, although the timer itself adds a different kind of drama.
you haven’t seen me do math lar…not sure a half hour is long enough for me to figure out the game is over…
When the last minute of a basketball game takes about half an hour you can be pretty sure the game’s not over. Because that’s when they need to take all those oh-so-important time-outs.
Just in time for March Madness.
I’m just teasing.. =)
Go Knicks? ;) Why didn’t we have a YF vs SF bracket? (Or did I miss it?)