We Ran The Data

Welcome to ‘We Ran the Data’.

A short history:

I grew up in Minnesota and have remained all things Minnesota in my sports fan-ness.  I bleed Purple, was present at Games 6 and 7 in ’87, wept for joy in 91 – then simply wept in ’98 and then again in ’09.  And then again in ’15.

I hate Dallas for three reasons:

1. Drew Pearson
2. Herschel Walker
3. North Stars

I went to school at The U, for awhile, and remain a Gopher fan.  I follow the Wolves and Wild, but to be honest, they are further down the list on my ‘Passion Register’.

I now live in North Carolina, have a wife and two kids – a girl and a boy.  The girl is awesome, the boy too.  But the girl doesn’t like sports, but boy does the boy!

Up until lately I have been out of touch with the local Twin Cities sport scene having to call my brother back home for all things ‘insider’.  For years he’s tried to get me to listen to sport-talk radio on my PC, but my job is such that I can’t focus on work and the radio at the same time.  Then I started driving a new car.  And it has blue tooth.  And I have a phone, with podcasts.  And THAT, my friends, is a wonderful combination.

And so it was that I discovered The Mackey and Judd show over at ESPN 1500.

Now my son and I listen before school, after school, on the way to soccer, basketball and all places in between.  And we nod in agreement, yell in disagreement and discuss things with the hosts in the background.

And it’s great.

My boy, TR we’ll call him, is into all things Mackey and Judd.  The Pecking order, the ‘Write this Down’, the Yule Log, the Stuff and the ‘Questions’.  And he is now discussing it using a degree of analytical thought that he hadn’t shown me in the past.

Now, I am, in part, a data analyst at work.  A modest one, but I do dig into numbers, make forecasts, analyze trends and use tools that employ some fun statistical background stuff.  I majored in math.  So this is right up my alley.

So, this.

If I can, I’d like to take 12 year-old TR down the road of statistics, using a subject we both love and try to get him to expand on math, the tools, the conversation, the debate and the whole ‘make a case grounded in data and then defend it’ as young as I can.  I’ll try to use common tools; a calculator and spreadsheets.  Then move into more uncommon tools; Power BI, R and Minitab.  We’ll see, we might close this deal in 6 months.  Or we might create a lifetime of enjoyment making our case that our guy should be the guy and that your guy is a splash in the pan.

We’ll see.