Tracking Stats with Special Guest John Massolio
GoS Ep005 Special Guest John Massolio
Welcome back to Girls on the Sideline! In today’s episode, I had the opportunity to interview Professional Sports Statistician John Massolio. John started his sports career at an early age, as a baseball player. Today, John shares his story with our wonderful listeners, explaining how he got his start as a pro sports statistician, what he does to help sports announcers, his views on baseball pitchers limiting their pitching count to preserve their arm, and much more.
Highlights of Today’s Episode:
- What is a Professional Sports Statistician?
- How much time goes into the preparation and creation of player and team statistics provided to an announcer?
- How many people are involved in preparing and creating the stats throughout each game? Does it differ from game to game?
- How are the statistics tracked?
- How much math and probability play into the work of a professional sports statistician?
- What sports does John work with the most?
- Does the speed of the game affect the role of the statistician?
- Are professional sports statisticians responsible for “before the game” stat collections for the announcers, or are those numbers already researched and available?
- What is John’s favorite sport to work in?
- Has he ever given the wrong statistics to an announcer?
- What single piece of advice has he received throughout his career that has stuck with him and helped him succeed in the industry?
- What started his passion for sports?
- How important is it that matching a left-handed pitcher with a left-handed batter is for a baseball game?
- What are John’s thoughts on limiting a pitcher’s pitch count to preserve his arm?
- When does John think his parents began to realize his potential in sports?
- What is his favorite team in any sport?
- What was the first sporting event he has ever attended?
- What is the best sporting event he has ever seen?
- If John had a ‘walk-up’ song when stepping onto the baseball diamond, what would his song be?
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