PS Picks: Baseball Reckons With Racism on Social Media
PS Picks is a selection of the best things that the magazine's staff and contributors are reading, watching, or otherwise paying attention to in the worlds of art, politics, and culture.
Baseball
The Lede, Issue #32: Racism on Social Media, the Nature of Apology, Nicole Chung's Debut Book, and More
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Passionate Sports Fans Are More Likely to Endorse Right-Wing Policies
The outliers are basketball aficionados, who tend to lean leftward.
Yuli Gurriel's Suspension May Be Forgotten, but Cuba's Complicated Asian Racism Persists
The World Series champion's gesture toward a Japanese opponent signals a larger problem with racism in Latin American countries.
Finding Canada’s Team
What does fandom look like in the home city of Canada’s only Major League Baseball team?
More Than Just the Numbers
When we treat people as collections of statistics, we ignore important aspects of their humanity.
Baseball’s Best Teams of 2015
A mathematical model says the Washington Nationals will win the most games in Major League Baseball this season.
Even in Sports, You Are What You Eat
To cheer for a team, or a sport, is to become part of a larger social phenomenon. Food is another—important—part of that shared identity.
Being Mookie Wilson, the Soul of the 1986 Mets
On Bill Buckner, Doc Gooden, and the lost art of the triple.
Prophetic Umpires: Expectation Bias and Errors in Baseball
It’s not that what you see is what you get. It’s that what you expect is what you see.
Prediction: The Detroit Tigers Will Get Most Wins This Baseball Season
Mathematician Bruce Bukiet projects most of last year’s division-winning teams will once again be victorious.
A Brief History of America's Favorite Pastime's Favorite Pastime
If there's one thing that knits together the history of baseball, it's cheating.
Welcome to Cheating Week
Never cheated before? Then this probably isn't your bag—and you're probably not human—but for everyone else, we'll be publishing stories about bending, breaking, and totally ignoring the rules all week long.
MLB Playoffs Predictions: Los Angeles Dodgers Look Good
Mathematician Bruce Bukiet crunches the numbers, and likes the L.A. Dodgers.
How America Stole Baseball From the United Kingdom
Americans didn't invent baseball. Why do we work so hard to pretend we did?
Major Lessons From the Minor Leagues
There is a measurable economic boost from hosting a minor league baseball team, a newish study finds. What might happen if we mixed in some DNA from English football?
Predictions for the 2013 Major League Baseball Season
The Detroit Tigers will probably dominate, but the rest of the league might be a toss-up, says statistician Bruce Bukiet.
What Major League Baseball Is Doing To Keep Bats Inside the Diamond
Experts say a seven-game World Series will see three-and-a-half broken bats.
Hit By a Pitch: Vicarious Punishment in the Batter’s Box
New research finds a substantial minority of baseball fans disregard their own moral views and support the idea of “beaning” a player in retaliation for an earlier incident.
MLB Prediction: Cardinals to Lead NL in Wins
Despite losing manager Tony La Russa and all-star Albert Pujols, mathematician Bruce Bukiet predicts that the St. Louis Cardinals will lead the National League in victories.
In Baseball, Younger Siblings Steal More Bases
Evolutionary theory suggests younger siblings take more risks. New research finds that is true — at least on the baseball diamond.
Mathematician's Model Predicts MLB Divisional Winners
The Yankees look to be the dominant team in baseball for 2010, according to a New Jersey Institute of Technology mathematician (and Mets fan).