I stand corrected about the 0.5 OBP. It is indeed 1⁄3. It’s possible that I have my number wrong from my friend and that his data was meant to illustrate driving the OBP towards 1⁄3 rather than 1⁄2, in which case my intuition about entropy playing a role is just wrong. It’s also the height of the mound that mattered though, and that was changed a lot in the 1900s, but yes, all the data on moving it back and forth was prior to 1893.
I didn’t say anything about NFL kicker accuracy, just that goal post dimensions were tinkered with to achieve an effect. That effect happens to be 80%, presumably for point scoring for fans. Again, free throws were moved from 20 feet to 15, and yes it was long ago, but the rule change was specifically for field goal percentage. In fact, the rule was also changed so that the fouled player had to take the shots, to prevent teams from having a single free throw ace.
Thank you for pointing out the mistakes, though. I think the larger point that playing surfaces are tuned to achieve statistical regularities in performance holds. In fact, pro sports leagues wouldn’t be able to sell their products if they didn’t do this, which makes it all the more interesting that fans obsess over it. You’re essentially paying them good money to ensure that a particular set of physical movements will generate a sufficiently random result such that you’ll be captivated by seeing it unfold. It reminds me of the Chris Bachelder novel Bear v. Shark.
I stand corrected about the 0.5 OBP. It is indeed 1⁄3. It’s possible that I have my number wrong from my friend and that his data was meant to illustrate driving the OBP towards 1⁄3 rather than 1⁄2, in which case my intuition about entropy playing a role is just wrong. It’s also the height of the mound that mattered though, and that was changed a lot in the 1900s, but yes, all the data on moving it back and forth was prior to 1893.
I didn’t say anything about NFL kicker accuracy, just that goal post dimensions were tinkered with to achieve an effect. That effect happens to be 80%, presumably for point scoring for fans. Again, free throws were moved from 20 feet to 15, and yes it was long ago, but the rule change was specifically for field goal percentage. In fact, the rule was also changed so that the fouled player had to take the shots, to prevent teams from having a single free throw ace.
Thank you for pointing out the mistakes, though. I think the larger point that playing surfaces are tuned to achieve statistical regularities in performance holds. In fact, pro sports leagues wouldn’t be able to sell their products if they didn’t do this, which makes it all the more interesting that fans obsess over it. You’re essentially paying them good money to ensure that a particular set of physical movements will generate a sufficiently random result such that you’ll be captivated by seeing it unfold. It reminds me of the Chris Bachelder novel Bear v. Shark.