Everyday Statistics

Brian Wilson, the closer for the San Francisco Giants, with a 1.81 era and a league leading 70 saves was facing Nelson Cruz of the Texas Rangers who had a slugging percentage of .503 in the bottom of the ninth for the final out of the 2011 World Series (Major League Baseball, 2011).  My beloved Giants went on to win the World Series and the streets of San Francisco were filled with fans of statistics. Well, maybe not statistics exactly, but everywhere one looks in baseball and all other areas of life, statistics plays a key role in helping to summarize what is being experienced. Statistics is the science of conducting studies to collect, organizes, summarize, analyze and draw conclusions from data (Bluman, 2009). Statistics plays a crucial part in my work, family and fun aspects of my life.

I work as an analyst for the Federal Government in searching for criminal activity. Statistics plays a very important part of my job in that I am immersed with large databases of information that must be organized and analyzed for use in catching suspects. One aspect is looking at phone records of suspects. If we are to try and catch the suspect involved in illegal activities then we look at all the times they are on the phone and then we average and find the time of day and which day of the week they are on the phone the most. Then we can try and get information at those times. Statistics helps me to find out the best times to listen in for illegal activity.

For my family it is important for us financially to follow a budget. Our spending creates large amounts of data of our spending. It is only when we organize, summarize and analyze the data that we can understand our spending tendencies and finds areas to either cut back or shift our habits. Taking data from over an entire year can help average out typical monthly spending and give us a budget that will fall below our income. This also allows us to save money when bills are not due for the times they will become due.

Watching baseball is a large part of my fun time during the fall. I take part in fantasy teams where I go online to research the averages and statistics of all the players I am interested in. And when I watch the game I begin to notice decisions that the coaches make based upon tendencies or the statistics of one player again certain traits of another player. Many times coaches spend a majority of their non-game time figuring statistics for game time decisions (QCBaseball.com, 2011). San Francisco’s biggest decision going into the World Series was leaving two of the highest paid players off the roster because their statistics were not good the last month of the regular season (McCauley, 2010).

Statistics plays a very vital role in my work, family and fun. The data is always being created as life goes on, but proper application of statistics help us to organize and analyze the data so that we can make well informed decisions in our life. I am making it a point to follow the San Francisco Giants this year so when we win the pennant I will be able to once again run through the streets shouting the praises of statistics.

References

Bluman, A. G. (2009). Elementary Statistics, A Step by Step Approach (7th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Major League Baseball. (2011, April). Player Search. Retrieved from http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/players/?tcid=nav_mlb_players

McCauley, J. (2010, Oct 8). Giants leave high-priced Zito off playoff roster. Retrieved from http://www.newschief.com/article/20101008/NEWS/10085055

QCBaseball.com. (2011). Charting Pitchers and Hitters. Retrieved from http://www.qcbaseball.com/tools/charting1.aspx