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Introduction

"Take me out to the ballgame. Take me out to the crowd...."

You can't help humming that tune while on your way to see the San Francisco Giants baseball team! Aunt Rosemary from Ohio is in town and wanted to take you to a Giants game. Unfortunately, the game was starting during your MATH class! However, your parents and math teacher gave you permission to attend the game with special conditions.

The deal is that you will report back to the rest of the math class all the different ways mathematics is used in the game of baseball. This should be a no brainer, or at least you hope!

"Buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks, I don't care if I never get back...."

Internet Activities

An Introduction to Sabermetrics

Seton Hall Department of Mathematics

While driving to the game, your Aunt Rosemary is talking non-stop about what a unique assignment your math teacher gave allowing you to attend the Giants game. She mentioned something about "sabermetrics" being a good vocabulary word to learn for your report.

Activity:

1. What the heck is Sabermetrics?
2. Seton Hall University offers a course on Sabermetrics. What math skills would you need in order to take this class? (Hint: If using Netscape you might want to use the 'find binoculars'.)

San Francisco Giants Ticket Pricing

Giants' 1998 Baseball Schedule

Last year the two of you sat in one of the lower box MVP sections. Great seats and great fun, doesn't get any better than that!

Activity:

Aunt Rosemary has allocated $100 dollars to spend on the game. If she buys two lower box MVP tickets, how much will she spend? How much is left of the $100 bill?

If at a later date, you bought a lower reserved ticket for August 10th (the day after your birthday), how much would two tickets cost?

Giant Fans Step Up to the Plate

During the 3rd inning J.T. Snow hit a ball into the crowd that almost hit the peanut vendor up in section 21. As the vendor signaled he was okay, you think buying peanuts sounds like a plan. A local newspaper had mentioned peanuts costing $1.75, a Giants dog at $2.75 and a large souvenir drink at $3.75. Also mentioned were something known as garlic fries. It's garlic french fries! Gosh if everyone had some of those fries think of the stadium aroma!

Activity:

1. Garlic french fries are $4.00. If you and your Aunt both have garlic fries with a souvenir soft drink, how much would this cost?
2. How many Giants dogs would it take laid end-to-end to "run" around the bases? (To each base is 90').
3. How much money is left of that original $100 dollar bill?

1997 Final Major League Baseball Attendance

Giant Fans Step Up to the Plate

Chomping away on your garlic fries you went back to that thought about everyone eating garlic in the entire stadium. You decide there is actually a math problem involved with even attendance and food!

Activity:

1. If everyone of those 1997 home baseball fans had bought a Giants dog at $2.75, how much money would the concession stands have collected?
2. According to the Giants press office how many of these hot dogs were sold last year? How many does that average per fan?

Giants & A's Chronicle Salaries

San Francisco Chronicle - A's & Giants Salaries (version 2-click on "printer friendly".)

As you take the last gulp of soda, Barry Bonds steps up to the plate. "Now there is a walking mathematics book...just a fine example of math and baseball." says your Aunt. "Just think of his salary and game statistics!"

Activity:

1. Baseball is big business with large payrolls. Back in 1920 Babe Ruth of the Yankees earned $20,000 as a top player. What is Barry's average salary for the 1998 baseball season?
2. If Barry plays in all 182 games this season, how much money will he average per game? How could you figure Barry's salary per minute of playing time?

Giants Magazine

A Giants Magazine is needed to keep player statistics for your math project. In fact just buying the magazine involves math.

Activity:

1. How much is left of the original $100 dollar bill when two Giants Magazines are purchased?
2. These program vendors are selling these magazines through-out the stadium. If ten vendors sold twenty-two programs an hour working four hours, how much money would be collected? (Wow, you decide your math teacher will love this word problem).

Baseball Payrolls

Major League Baseball Payrolls (version 2-click on "printer friendly".)

Major League Baseball payrolls and individual salaries are often listed in the San Francisco newspapers as the season starts. This year was no exception. You plan to use this information in your report!

Activity:

1. What is the Giants payroll as listed in the San Francisco Chronicle?
2. What percentage of the Giants total payroll does outfielder Barry Bonds represent?
3. Can you explain how his salary relates to the Montreal Expos total payroll?

The Marine Mammal Center

Rules of Baseball

During the 7th inning stretch, Lou Seal comes out on the field. Lou is the Giants mascot you inform Aunt Rosemary. She explains that Lou Seal is actually a harbor seal of the scientific order pinnipedia. Harbor Seals like Lou are powered by their flippers and their bodies. "Great!" you say, "but baseball is not about science." Of course she tells you that you are VERY wrong but does turn Lou Seal into a math statistic for you.

Activity:

1. What are some interesting statistics about Lou Seal and his relatives?
2. Harbor Seals only move 1 mph on land. How many minutes would it take Lou Seal to run the bases?

Baseball Basics - Calculate Batting Averages

Batting Statistics - San Francisco Giants

Listening to the KNBR (the Sports Leader) radio broadcast on the way over to the ballpark, you remember that the Giants broadcaster Jon Miller mentioned that last year Barry Bonds had a .291 batting average.

Activity:

1. Jon Miller also mentioned that last year infielder Bill Mueller had a batting average of .292. Explain in detail how batting averages are calculated!
2. How are Barry Bonds and Bill Mueller doing this year with their batting averages?

Batting Statistics - San Francisco Giants

Last year the San Francisco Giants as a team had a .258 batting average. The Giants were at bat 5,485 times with 1415 hits.

Activity:

1. So far this year how many times have the Giants been up to bat and how many hits do they have?
2. What does that make the team batting average?

Bats on Tour

Rey Sanchez comes up to bat and while swinging at a pitch his bat cracked. Aunt Rosemary mentions the fact that $29 dollars is now down the drain. Aunt Rosemary had just visited the Louisville Slugger museum and this is the price the tour guide quoted.

Activity:

1. Each Louisville Slugger cost a major league ball players' team $29 dollars. How many Louisville Sluggers were made for MLB players? How much would be spent on bats during the Major League Baseball season?
2. According to Mike Murphy, the Club House Manager of the Giants, they use 300 dozen baseball a month. Each baseball costs around $3.00 a piece. How much money does the Giants' spend on baseballs during one month?

ERA: Pitchers Give It Up

San Francisco Giants Pitching Statistics

Shawn Estes is now at the mound pitching for the Giants. You know that there is plenty of math involved in pitching like knowing a pitcher's ERA.

Activity:

1. When a baseball fan talks about ERA's, what do they mean?
2. Explain pitchers Shawn Estes and Orel Hershiser's current ERA's!

Baseball Hall of Fame Nostalgic T-Shirts

As you wander down the corridors of the stadium to use the facilities, a T-shirt catches your eye. It is one from the Baseball Hall of Fame located in Cooperstown, New York.

Activity:

1. What is the total cost of two Baseball Hall of Fame T-Shirts - one for you and one for your Aunt?.
2. Out of that original $100 dollar bill, what is the verdict now? (Anything left?)

Batting Cleanup

The Giants win the ballgame, fans are cheering and you look around at the fans and TRASH! Mounds of trash somebody has to clean up in time for tomorrow's ballgame! You read someplace "that in some stadiums when it's 90 degrees, even the cheese bakes into the cement." YUK!

Activity:

1. How much trash do some stadiums accumulate in a game? In a season?
2. How long does it usually take to get a stadium ready for the next game?

Pacific Bell Park - Facts & Figures

Construction Site of PacBell Park

Well, you had one heck of a great time. You mention to your Aunt that you have plenty of reasons to report back to the math class on how baseball and math go together. Aunt Rosemary suggests you can even add more facts and figures by visiting the new Giants Pacific Bell Park website! She mentions the fact that you've just touched the surface of math and baseball - "What about all the math involved in baseball collectables like the Honus Wagner T206 card worth $450,000 or the team revenue and expenses?" "Stop!" you say. You get the point...."MATH IS EVERYWHERE IN BASEBALL!!!!"

Activity:

1. What will Pacific Bell Park cost to build?
2. How many fans will the new ballpark seat?
3. Take a look at the construction site. What is most interesting to you?

Conclusion

Hope you had fun, learned and most importantly connected with some part of this topic while exploring "Math, Baseball and the San Francisco Giants"! You might want to explore other links relating to baseball such as the Baseball Hall of Fame, the Louisville Slugger Museum, or the Major League Baseball website. Now that you have finished the activities, you need to form some real conclusions. Your teacher may ask you to answer one or two of these larger questions listed below.

1. Can you itemize your total expenses at the ball game? How much is actually left in Aunt Rosemary's $100 bill? What are other expenses that should have been mentioned?
2. Are there other examples of how math is used in baseball that these activities didn't cover? What are they?
3. Websters Dictionary's definition of baseball is that "it is a game played on a diamond shaped field with a batted ball." Write your definition of baseball having just completed "Math, Baseball & the San Francisco Giants".

Content by Linda Uhrenholt, lindau@tdl.com http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/baseball/ Last revised February 4, 1999