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Monday, February 02, 2009

A trend

FWIW.

I moved to Phoenix to attend grad school in 2001, and that fall the Diamondbacks won their first world series title when Luis Gonzalez blooped a single to center off of Mariano Rivera to score Jay Bell.

I moved to Altoona for work in 2008, and that winter the Steelers won the Superbowl when Roethlisberger somehow found Santonio Holmes four times in the last 2 1/2 minutes to erase the Cardinals' new 23-20 lead.

There are 30 MLB teams, which means that, all things being equal, the chances of a given team winning in a particular year is ~3%. There are 32 NFL teams, which means that the chances of a given team winning in a particular year is also ~3%.

Therefore, the probabiliy that the Diamondbacks would win during my first year in Phoenix and that the Steelers would win my first year in PA is 3% * 3% = 0.1%.

Just sayin'.

If you're interested in having your own home town team win it all, I'm currently accepting relocation proposals. :)

5 comments:

  1. Wow, I never thought I'd say this, but I think your math is off. Since you are looking at two different sports, should the odds be whether either the Diamondback or the Cardinals won while you were in AZ and whether the Pirates or the Steelers won while you were in PA. I'm not going to attempt the simple math since its been upteen years since I tried my hand at stats, but I would think that doubles your odds, as low as they are.

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  2. Yeah, there are at least 2 fundamental assumption/method problems with this post that I can think of. Three if you try to attach some interpretive meaning to the 0.1%. Your point is one of them. The post was meant to be tongue-in-cheek. :)
    -j

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  3. How about moving back to Cincinnati?

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  4. You should have posted this before I ran out of money.

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  5. should i put my money on the pirates this year?

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