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I noticed this in King Kaufman's Salon.com column. Kaufman wrote about the passing of mathematician Frederick Mosteller.
Mosteller had an obituary in the Washington Post.
Toward the end was this paragraph:
Among the works in his prolific output were several articles on magic tricks and bridge. One of Dr. Mosteller's early papers, the first known academic analysis of baseball, showed that even a strong team relies heavily on luck in a short, seven-game series. He wrote the piece after the Boston Red Sox, his favorite team, lost the World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals in 1946.
In 1946, St. Louis was 98-58 (winning a playoff against Brooklyn), while Boston finished 104-50. It was a World Series that featured Stan Musial and Ted Williams.
Musial batted .222 in the series. Williams, bothered by an injury, batted .200. Neither man homered.
Mosteller likely went through the streets of Boston after the series ended yelling, "Sample size! Sample size!"
vr, Xei
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