How Is Math Used in Baseball?

Video Transcript

"So how is mathematics used in baseball? Hi, my name is Jimmy Chang. I've been teaching college mathematics for nine years, and the answer to that question is that math is actually used very frequently in baseball. Now, the one popular branch of mathematics for which baseball is used is statistics. Now, there are statistics for just about everything in baseball, whether it be a player's batting average, on-base percentage, number of home runs, how many times is he up to bat. And when you watch the baseball games, you will see, quite often, statistics on every single player, and when the commentators talk about those statistics, those are being fed to them by the people upstairs who are...whose job is to bring up statistics of players, teams, et cetera. Now, those statistics, especially on the parts of individual players, then lead into contracts, which is the amount of money a player would make every year, of course. Now, the better a player performs, the more money they would get in their contract; and the less they perform, of course, they don't make as much money over a year's time. So that gives you a glimpse as to how math is used in baseball. My name is Jimmy Chang."