Author Archives: David Roher

Testing Michel Owen: The Alleged Diving Culture Of “Players Coming From South America, Italy and Spain”

Posted on November 13, 2012 by David Roher

By Dan Brown A less technical version of this post appears on Deadspin. Earlier this month, Stoke City striker Michael Owen was quoted by the BBC as stating that diving in the Premier League is “worse than 10 years ago … Continue reading →

Posted in Soccer | 4 Comments

HSAC Live Chat/Crowdsourcing: Opening Day

Posted on April 5, 2012 by David Roher

By David Roher Fellow sabermetricians, let’s try to take over Twitter today.  Click Here to open up our Opening Day livechat. We’ll coordinate different crowdsourcing initiatives throughout the day. Here’s one to start: use the hashtag #HSAC, the three-letter abbreviation for … Continue reading →

Posted in MLB Baseball | Leave a comment

Crowdsourcing Divinest Sense from March Madness

Posted on March 15, 2012 by David Roher

By David Roher “thumbs up if u know JB’s haters are pathetic… when he is all about the love” — SkilletBiscuitCrew on Baby There are two ways to manage internet commentary. You can restrict the conversation to an elite group, or … Continue reading →

Posted in NCAA Basketball | 1 Comment

Two Upcoming Sports Conferences (And a Call for Abstracts)

Posted on March 30, 2011 by David Roher

Co-President Emeritus Jason Rosenfeld is helping to organize (and co-chairing one) a couple of great upcoming conferences at Harvard. Here are the announcements for both: Sabermetrics, Scouting, and the Science of Baseball “I am pleased to announce that a weekend … Continue reading →

Posted in Papers | Leave a comment

Calculating The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air’s Usage Rate, And What It Can Tell Us About Ball Hogs

Posted on March 24, 2011 by David Roher

Before Will Smith got his big break as the title character in Hitch, he was a little-known television actor on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, a gritty early-’90s drama about class and race in America, starring Alfonso Ribeiro of Extreme … Continue reading →

Posted in Menu | 7 Comments

It’d Take Trey Parker A Million Years To Lose, And Other Statistical Oddities Of BASEketball

Posted on March 23, 2011 by David Roher

BASEketball was released in 1998, and while the film did manage to catch director David Zucker before his career free fall had taken him from the heights of Naked Gun to the depths of Scary Movie 4, it was in … Continue reading →

Posted in Other Sports | 2 Comments

An Advanced Statistical Analysis of Jimmy Chitwood’s Basketball Performance in Hoosiers

Posted on March 17, 2011 by David Roher

By David Roher If I asked you who the best athlete in history was, none of you would hesitate before saying “John Daly.” But the best fictional athlete? That’s a bit tougher. Rocky? Roy Hobbs? Lou Gehrig? While this question … Continue reading →

Posted in Menu | 14 Comments

Registration for the $200 HSAC Analytic Bracket Contest Is Now Open

Posted on March 14, 2011 by David Roher

Update: First round entry is now closed. Stay tuned for the next wave! As announced on Friday, HSAC is holding a tournament bracket challenge. A total of $200 in prizes are up for grabs. To be eligible for them, you … Continue reading →

Posted in NCAA Basketball | 1 Comment

First Annual HSAC Analytic Bracket Contest — Benefit for Tsunami Relief, $200 Total in Prizes

Posted on March 11, 2011 by David Roher

Update: Registration is now open. I woke up this morning ready to introduce our contest for the NCAA tournament only to read about the devastation in Japan. As a result, we’re going to use the opportunity to raise some money … Continue reading →

Posted in NCAA Basketball | 1 Comment

Connection: A Trivia Game for the Obsessive Fan

Posted on March 7, 2011 by David Roher

Disclaimer: the following is of negligible analytical value. However, after a weekend at the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference and Ben Blatt’s lovely Six Degrees project, I realized that it was worth a post. It was two New York summers ago … Continue reading →

Posted in MLB Baseball | 2 Comments