April 30, 2018
What Do Baseball & Pay Ratio Have In Common?
– Liz Dunshee
Here’s the intro from this clever US Chamber of Commerce article:
If you ask most people about Keith Hernandez, some might recall his career as a professional baseball player – while more still would remember him from his recurring role on the immensely popular sitcom Seinfeld. But did you know he also holds the major league record for most game-winning RBIs in a season and all-time?
If you’re shaking your head, you’re not alone. Even major league baseball has discarded the stat because it’s virtually meaningless: it didn’t distinguish between a 1st-inning single in a lopsided game & a decisive home run in the bottom of the 9th.
Baseball – a sport driven by statistics and numerical analytics – got rid of a stat because it failed to provide meaningful information. Public companies now have their own version of the game-winning RBI statistic – it’s known as “pay ratio.”