An illuminating mix for sports fans and math buffs looking to hone their skills.
Entertaining deconstruction of the mathematics of sports.
To enjoy this book, readers need only a basic knowledge of high school math, even when Barrow (Mathematical Sciences/Cambridge Univ.; The Book of Universes: Exploring the Limits of the Cosmos, 2011, etc.) discusses more complicated subjects such as probabilities. He shows how the relationship between time and distance determines the best strategy for kicking the ball in rugby or soccer. Turning to track and field, Barrow speculates that in order to top his world-record 100-meter time, sprinter Usain Bolt could reduce his reaction time, but an even better bet would be to race on a high-altitude track in Mexico City while getting an assist from a high tailwind. The author explains why runners, given a choice, don't select either the inside position on a circular track, even though it is the shortest distance, or the outside, with its gentler curve, because they want to gauge the speed of the runners on either side. Barrow also investigates Cold War politics to discover why female world records in Olympic track and field competitions have remained static in recent years. The answer can be found in the practices of the East German Stasi, who systematically dosed their athletes with anabolic steroids. While random testing is now routine for Olympic athletes, there is no random testing of U.S. baseball players, despite evidence of steroid use. The author explains that existing tests are not considered to be sufficiently precise. Using hypothetical examples, Barrow introduces the fundamentals of statistics and the application of Bayes' theorem to conditional probabilities, and he includes discussions of skydiving, rowing, triathlons and water polo, among other athletic endeavors.
An illuminating mix for sports fans and math buffs looking to hone their skills.Pub Date: June 18, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-393-06341-7
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An effectively sly, pleasantly diverting send-up of vacuous sports-star biographies, courtesy of first-time author Shilstone. The narrator, a self-confessed master of deceit, is attempting to fulfill an offhand commission to tell the life story of Chance Caine 25 years after Chance's retirement (at age 40) from professional baseball. He handles the assignment in episodic fashion, offering commentary from teammates, boyhood friends, and others, as well as from his subject (who has a bit of the poet about him). The unnamed Boswell also includes a full measure of his own antic observations on the diamond game—odd bits and pieces that gradually coalesce, yielding a remarkably clear picture of a likable, even admirable, character. Chance, the son of a bookish professor and an athletic mom, was a natural from the beginning. Turning pro after high school, he was eventually voted into the Hall of Fame for his brilliant play at shortstop over a 22-year span with the Lions (a National League franchise in an unidentified American city). All told, Chance made it to the World Series three times (without ever playing for a winner), batted .402 one glorious season, earned golden gloves galore for near flawless fielding, and was a perennial All Star selection. The press and his adoring fans were always more upset by the Lions' failure to capture a Fall Classic than Chance was. He played for sheer love of the game—but, still, he leaves it without a qualm when his skills decline; moreover, after surviving a murderous appreciation-day assault by a crazed sportswriter, Chance marries a beautiful model who loves him for his soul and gets on with a fulfilling life. At the close, there are some agreeably twisty revelations offering a sense of the continuity that is a hallmark of the summer game. If not yet in a class with Robert Coover, Ring Lardner, or Bernard Malamud, newcomer Shilstone makes a fine, affectionate job of spoofing the national pastime's enduring charms, mores, and myths.
Pub Date: March 14, 1996
ISBN: 1-55821-450-X
Page Count: 224
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1996
An okay history of the hapless but beloved Chicago Cubs, a baseball team that hasn't won a World Series since 1908 or played in one since 1945. Though this takes the form of an oral history, Golenbock (Wild, High and Tight: The Life and Death of Billy Martin, 1994, etc.) has to borrow heavily from long-published sources to tell the story of the early years, starting with Albert Spalding's 1876 desertion of the Boston club to pitch for Chicago's White Stockings. He would eventually own the ball team and lead it to a dynasty in the 1880s. They became the Cubs in 1902, and in 1906, under player/manager Frank Chance, they won 116 games. The Cubs lost to the crosstown White Sox in the World Series, but won back- to-back world championships in 1907 and 1908 against Ty Cobb and the Detroit Tigers. It would be their last World Series victory, though they won pennants in 1910, 1918, and again in 1945. Veterans of that WW II team—Phil Cavaretta, Len Merullo, Dewey Williams- -recall the series for Golenbock, still second-guessing manager Charlie Grimm's selection of a pitcher for the seventh and deciding game. Some great and memorable ballplayers have been Cubs, and Golenbock introduces them throughout his narrative: Gabby Hartnett, Hack Wilson, Ferguson Jenkins, Dizzy Dean, manager Leo ``The Lip'' Durocher, Bruce Sutter, Lou Brock and, of course, ``Mr. Cub,'' Ernie Banks, a two-time MVP, with 512 career home runs. (Curiously, the affable Banks, an executive with the Cubs, is not among Golenbock's interviewees, a serious omission.) The Cubs' woes in recent years culminated when future Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg walked away from a $28 million contract in 1994 out of sheer frustration. (Sandberg has recently rejoined the team.) Anecdotally interesting, but Golenbock could have done more legwork in some crucial areas, most notably Banks's outstanding career. (50 b&w photos)
Pub Date: March 4, 1996
ISBN: 0-312-14079-7
Page Count: 560
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1996
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