IRISH SPORTS NERDS will be rejoicing today with the news that baseball sabermetrician (basically a baseball statistician) Bill James will be speaking on the Sport Stage of the Web Summit, which is being held at the RDS from Novemeber 4th-6th.
James came to prominence in the 1970′s and 1980′s when he wrote a series of baseball books that analysed the game using revolutionary statistics. Initially, the baseball establishment rejected James’ analysis but eventually it worked its way into the mainstream, and Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane used it to great success in the early 00′s.
Beane was eventually played by Brad Pitt in the movie Moneyball, which put James’ theories even further in the spotlight.
The Web Summit sees speakers from all over the world come to Dublin to discuss technology and innovation and Jamie Heaslip, who spends a good bit of time down in the RDS as it is, will also speak on the Sport Stage at the summit.
