"The Yankees won for the sixth time in seven contests and moved into a virtual tie, two percentage points ahead of Boston" - Seattle Post IntelligencerWhat is up with baseball and "percentages"? ("On Base Percentage" is the other example.) For a sport which prides itself on being all statistically minded, people can't even get the basic math right. Sorry, but the Sox are not two percentage points back.
"The Yankees are actually ahead by two percentage points." - Worcester Telegram
"The Yankees won for the sixth time in seven contests and moved into a virtual tie, two percentage points ahead of Boston..." - SportsNetwork
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Pet peeve #6,817
Okay, I know this is nitpicky, but it drives me nuts:
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so do we need a new word that means the equivalent of percentage relative to 1,000 as opposed to the normal 100? something like deca-percentage? So the sox would really b two deca-percentage points out of first? Or KY's OBP is actually 389 deca-percent.
ReplyDeleteIn reading a few Yankee blogs recently, it kills me that their (admittedly moronic fanbase) are up in arms saying that CLE are a bucnh of morons and idiots who clearly want the sox to win for pitching to Ortiz, leaving Carmona in, etc. (one person, and I hope they were kidding, said the commissioner should investigate what happened in Boston the last two nights.) So when it is the Sox battling, it is stupidity and a gift from the opponenet, but when Giambi hit his GW 2R HR the other day, it was a testament to the grittiness of the Yankees. It is beautiful.
ReplyDeleteNever before have I heard this stupid percentage points thing. I swear that all sports media is getting worse...it is all 5 o'clock news type things now.
ReplyDeleteAnd if I have to hear about the resilient Yankees one more time I'm gonna puke. Damon, Jeter, A-Rod, Giambi, Posada, and Williams is not a lineup lacking in depth (especially when one of them is abusing HGH)...
This division will be decided within the month, though. I don't think this is a down-to-the-wire race for the division. The big 5-game series will decide it all this month. I just get that sense.
Back to the main point...In my entire life of watching baseball, I've never heard this percentage point argument. I've heard "back in the loss column", "virtual tie", "head to head records", but never the "trailing by percentage points"...Maybe it is to cover up the "Wild Card is NOT coming from the East" crap everyone was spewing...