About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherUniversity of Nebraska Press

ISBN-101496212053

ISBN-139781496212054

eBay Product ID (ePID)14038642187

Product Key Features

Number of Pages256 Pages

Publication NameWhen Big Data Was Small : My Life in Baseball Analytics and Drug Design

LanguageEnglish

SubjectBaseball / History, Sports Medicine, Probability & Statistics / General, Personal Memoirs, Baseball / General, Baseball / Statistics

Publication Year2019

TypeTextbook

AuthorRichard D. Cramer

Subject AreaMathematics, Sports & Recreation, Biography & Autobiography, Medical

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height1 in

Item Weight18.8 Oz

Item Length9.3 in

Item Width6.4 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceTrade

LCCN2018-047749

Reviews"Dick was one of a handful of people back in the 1970s who started the statistical revolution in baseball . . . in his spare time. He was also a respected scientist with a distinguished career, and he played a little jazz on the side. This book chronicles his life, with its ups and downs, both professional and personal, in an honest and unassuming way. It is an interesting journey, with the last chapter yet to be written."--Pete Palmer, coauthor of The Hidden Game of Baseball: A Revolutionary Approach to Baseball and Its Statistics, " When Big Data Was Small is one of the most consequential books on baseball history and the evolution of thinking on the game."--Jason Schott, Brooklyn Digest, " When Big Data Was Small is one of the most consequential books on baseball history and the evolution of thinking on the game."-- Brooklyn Digest, "Dick was one of a handful of people back in the '70s who started the statistical revolution in baseball . . . in his spare time. He was also a respected scientist with a distinguished career, and he played a little jazz on the side. This book chronicles his life, with its ups and downs, both professional and personal, in an honest and unassuming way. It is an interesting journey, with the last chapter yet to be written."--Pete Palmer, coauthor of The Hidden Game of Baseball: A Revolutionary Approach to Baseball and Its Statistics

IllustratedYes

Table Of ContentContents Foreword by John Thorn Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Setting the Stage 2. Baseball and Science Surface 3. College 4. Graduate School and the 1960s Computer 5. Industrial Synthetic Chemist 6. Harvard's Research Computer 7. Computer-Aided Drug Discovery 8. Sabermetrics' Infancy 9. Scientific Recognition 10. Twists of Fate 11. Birth of STATS Inc. 12. White Sox and Yankees 13. Scientific Career Transition 14. Rebirth of STATS Inc. 15. Comparative Molecular Field Analysis 16. STATS Soars 17. Cheerlessness and Lyme Disease 19. The Rise and Fall of TRPS 19. Repudiated by STATS 20. Tidying Up 21. In My Humble Opinion 22. Summing Up Appendix: Bamberg Mathematical Analysis of Baseball Notes Bibliography Index

SynopsisRichard D. Cramer has been doing baseball analytics for just about as long as anyone alive, even before the term "sabermetrics" existed. He started analyzing baseball statistics as a hobby in the mid-1960s, not long after graduating from Harvard and MIT. He was a research scientist for SmithKline and in his spare time used his work computer to test his theories about baseball statistics. One of his earliest discoveries was that clutch hitting--then one of the most sacred pieces of received wisdom in the game--didn't really exist. In When Big Data Was Small Cramer recounts his life and remarkable contributions to baseball knowledge. In 1971 Cramer learned about the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) and began working with Pete Palmer, whose statistical work is credited with providing the foundation on which SABR is built. Cramer cofounded STATS Inc. and began working with the Houston Astros, Oakland A's, Yankees, and White Sox, with the help of his new Apple II computer. Yet for Cramer baseball was always a side interest, even if a very intense one for most of the last forty years. His main occupation, which involved other "big data" activities, was that of a chemist who pioneered the use of specialized analytics, often known as computer-aided drug discovery, to help guide the development of pharmaceutical drugs. After a decade-long hiatus, Cramer returned to baseball analytics in 2004 and has done important work with Retrosheet since then. When Big Data Was Small is the story of the earliest days of baseball analytics and computer-aided drug discovery.

LC Classification NumberGV877.C73 2019