According to a new Bloomberg Politics poll, 67 percent of Americans say football is the national pastime, as opposed to 28 percent who say baseball is. I’m pretty sure I’m supposed to be shocked by this number—yet more proof that baseball is dying!—but honestly, I’m surprised that 28 percent of […] Read more »
They Hook You When You’re Young
How do events from our childhood shape our adult preferences? I recently studied this question using a classic American example: baseball. I tested how a team’s performance at every age of our childhood affects which team we root for as adults. From Facebook’s publicly available advertising platform, I downloaded data […] Read more »
Pastime – Opening Day 2014
It’s time again to talk about the National Pastime. Baseball season is starting this coming week. (I know that there was a quasi-start in Australia on March 22-23 with two Dodger wins; that doesn’t count.) Back in one of baseball’s Golden Ages, the 1950s, there seemed little debate about what […] Read more »
Poll Finds a Preponderance of Boo Birds for Rodriguez
… Just 1 in 5 Yankees fans have a favorable opinion of [Alex] Rodriguez, and about twice as many view him unfavorably, according to a New York Times poll conducted from Friday through Wednesday, during which time Major League Baseball penalized Rodriguez with a 211-game suspension and levied 50-game suspensions […] Read more »