{"id":1565,"date":"2011-08-08T12:30:44","date_gmt":"2011-08-08T17:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/nanotechnology\/?p=1565"},"modified":"2024-02-12T11:01:17","modified_gmt":"2024-02-12T16:01:17","slug":"a-question-of-priorities-comparing-available-statistics-for-baseballs-boys-of-summer-to-those-for-u-s-chemical-production-and-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/2011\/08\/08\/a-question-of-priorities-comparing-available-statistics-for-baseballs-boys-of-summer-to-those-for-u-s-chemical-production-and-use\/","title":{"rendered":"A question of priorities: Comparing available statistics for baseball’s “boys of summer” to those for U.S. chemical production and use"},"content":{"rendered":"

Richard Denison, Ph.D.<\/em>, is a Senior Scientist.<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve often been amazed when watching sports games on TV how quickly commentators can dig up the most obscure statistic about a player or team in real time, truly on the fly.\u00a0 It\u2019s not uncommon to be watching a game when a batter comes to the plate and I am immediately provided with his on-base percentage when batting left, facing that specific pitcher in the 9th<\/sup> inning when there\u2019s a runner on second and his team is trailing by two or fewer runs.<\/p>\n

I was reminded of all that this morning when perusing the New York Times sports page, which had this incredible graphic<\/a>.\u00a0 It depicts the exact location of every ball put in play this season by Yankee first baseman Mark Teixeira, who\u2019s having a bad year, comparing how well (or in this case, poorly) he does when he bats left- vs. right-handed.<\/p>\n

In the accompanying article, there is a link to Teixeira\u2019s BaseballReference.com page<\/a> showing batting stats for his entire career.\u00a0 These include his batting stats for home vs. away games, games before vs. after the All-Star Game break, stats broken down by month of the season, by whether his team won or lost, by whether he was a starter or a substitute, by what position he was playing, by his position in the batting order, by inning, by what the ball-strike count was when he got a hit, by what bases were occupied at the time \u2013 this list represents only half of the slices and dices of the data provided on this one player\u2019s page.<\/p>\n

One player out of hundreds active this year, all with such stats available at the flick of a mouse.\u00a0 Comparable stats on past players for decades past.\u00a0 And this is just major league baseball.\u00a0 There\u2019s football, soccer, tennis, horse racing.<\/p>\n

So, just one question:\u00a0 Would somebody tell me why can\u2019t I find out how many chemicals are produced in the U.S. and how they\u2019re used?\u00a0 Or what their hazards or risks are?<\/p>\n

Speaking of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and baseball, I can\u2019t help but point to this recent quote<\/a> (subscription required) that, believe it or not, links the two.\u00a0 It was delivered by Fisk Johnson, CEO of S.C. Johnson & Son, at the American Chemical Society’s 15th annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference in Washington, DC on June 21:<\/p>\n

Your child has a better chance of becoming a Major League Baseball player than a chemical has of being regulated by EPA.<\/p>\n

Now there\u2019s a\u00a0 statistic!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist. I\u2019ve often been amazed when watching sports games on TV how quickly commentators can dig up the most obscure statistic about a player or team in real time, truly on the fly.\u00a0 It\u2019s not uncommon to be watching a game when a batter comes to the plate and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,56096],"tags":[39193],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-policy","category-omboira","tag-prioritization"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t