Baseball: A Tool for Middle and High School Math Baseball,
perhaps more than any other major sport, is a game of numbers .
The sheer number of games (162 in the major league schedule)
leads to a large amount of statistical information. Students who
understand baseball better than math may understand many
mathematical concepts without realizing it. For these students,
harnessing the connection between baseball math and classroom
math topics can prove to be an effective teaching strategy.
While the applications among younger grades are straightforward
(batting averages equate with fractions, etc.), it is in high
school that the real interesting connections can be made. The
field of sabermetrics involves advanced statistical
interpretations of baseball. As a result of sabermetrics, new
baseball statistics have been created, statistics that are far
more complex than earned run average (ERA) or batting average.
This includes statistics such as WAR (wins above replacement),
WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched)