Yale Daily News

Updated: Sunday, November 22, 2009 6:43 p.m.

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What stats can’t tell us about baseball or life

Staff Columnist
Published Thursday, April 3, 2008

As Yale accepted another class of students this week, I thought back to when I was an applicant, and to my college essay. I remembered again that I’m here thanks to 500 words I wrote about baseball statistics. In my essay, I detailed how my appreciation for statistical analysis had helped me grow and what statistics had taught me about the world. I began the essay with what I thought was a powerful hook: Baseball stats had shown me the meaning of life.

A specific formula, I claimed, showed me that life is highly predictable — to a point. When I became fascinated by baseball...

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