The Stephen J. Dubner of Sports

It is arguable that, in the corporate-sponsored arena of public sports debate, there are only straw men at the table—or at least that the voices most frequently quoted have the least-useful things to say about where statistical analysis fits into the games we love. To date, much of the internet traffic on the topic has read more like a hackneyed jocks vs. nerds standoff than like an informed discussion that advances the collective understanding or contributes to winning more games. More importantly, because the issue falls along the typical fault lines of mainstream media vs. new media, old guard vs. new guard, the end result has been—at risk of mixing metaphors—a zero-sum border war instead of a rising tide to lift all boats.