An Economist Goes to the Game by Paul Oyer

" Are ticket scalpers good for teams? Should parents push their kids to excel at sports? Why do Koreans dominate women’s golf, while Kenyans and Ethiopians dominate marathon racing? Why would Michael Jordan, the greatest player in basketball, pass to Steve Kerr for the game-winning shot? Paul Oyer shows the many ways economics permeates the world of sports. His topics range from the business of sport to how great athletes use economic thinking to outsmart their opponents to why the world’s greatest sports powerhouse (at least per capita) is not America or China but the principality of Liechtenstein. Economics explains why some sports cannot stop the use of performance-enhancing drugs while others can, why hundred-million-dollar player contracts are guaranteed in baseball but not in football, how one man was able to set the world of sports betting on its ear—and why it will probably never happen again. This book is an entertaining guide to how a bit of economics can make you a better athlete and a more informed fan."      from Amzon

 

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- If McGwire was on steroids and Sosa wanted to keep pace, he would probably have ahd to take them too - and vice versa. In economics terms, McGwire and Sosa faced a "prisoner's dilemma," a situation that can turn otherwise reasonable people into drug users, cheaters, and liars.

- When a small difference in quality makes a big difference in income, the incentive to cheat becomes very strong.

- Eonomics offers two conclusions about drug use in sports. First, if you strongly suspect that an athlete is doping, he or she probably is. At least in some muscle-focused sports, the rewards for cheating and lying are huge, and as long as at least a few people are willing to cross that line, others have little choice but to follow. Lance Armstrong, ...... and others who used PEDs in cylcing and sprinting were only following their dominant strategies. Second, just because you con't hear much about drugs in a sport doesn't mean people are not using them to get an edge .....

- .... Why has the level of pay in baseball and other sports increased by double-digit multiples over the last fifty years? The increase can be explained by three economic factors: technological change, competition, and income distribution...."superstar effect." .....

- Game theorists classify penalty kicks as "similtaneous move" games, because both players make their decisions without knowing what choice their opponent will make.....

- Economists call this "serial independence." Serial independence means that the value of one item in a sequence is not affected by the value of another item in the sequence. In the case of tennis, serial independence means that the direction of a serve on one point should not affect ............

- .... success hinges on two things: knowing how often to employ each strategy, and ramdomizing among the strategies. To win, you have to be both smart and unpredictable....

- .... while teams have always hated scalpers for this reason, fans should love them for it. They create comepetition in the market, and for buyers, more competition among sellers is always better .....