>>>>> "Rolf" == Rolf Turner <r.tur...@auckland.ac.nz> writes:
> On 4/03/2009, at 11:50 AM, Michael A. Miller wrote:
>> Sports scores are not statistics, they are measurements
>> (counts) of the number of times each team scores. There
>> is no sampling and vanishingly small possibility of
>> systematic error in the measurement.
> I think this comment indicates a fundamental
> misunderstanding of the nature of statistics in general and
> the concept of variability in particular. Measurement
> error is only *one possible* source of variability and is
> often a minor --- or as in the case of sports scores a
> non-existent --- source.
Would you elaborate Rolf? I'm was referring to measurements, not
statistics. Isn't calling scores statistics similar to saying
that the values of some response in an individual subject before
and after treatment are statistics? I think they are just
measured values and that if they are measured accurately enough,
they can be precisely known. It is in considering the
distribution of similar measurements obtained in repeated trials
that statistics come into play.
>From my perspective as a baseball fan (I know I'm in Indiana and
I aught to be more of a basketball fan, but I grew up as a Cubs
watcher and still can't shake it), it doesn't seem to me that the
purpose of the score is to allow for some inference about the
overall population of teams. It is about which team beats the
other one and entertainment (and hot dogs) for the fans.
Mike
--
Michael A. Miller mmill...@iupui.edu
Department of Radiology, Indiana University School of Medicine
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