As I hear more debate (or is it partisan rancor - I mean despite obvious lies not one Democrat disrespected the office of the President and yelled to President Bush liar) regarding health care reform I am reminded of a remarkable Op-Ed piece from the NY Times (of course) by the strangest of bed fellows: Billy Beane, Newt Gingrich And John Kerry. For those who do not know Beane is the VP and General Manager of the Oakland A's, I might be wrong but I figure everyone else knows former Congressman Gingrich and Senator Kerry.Just brings Garrett Morris as Chico Escuela on SNL- "Baseball be berra good to me"
Why would baseball be a benchmark for health care? Because baseball is a game of statistics and coaching decisions and in particular staffing decisions are made by using those statistics. The use of a newer way of looking at baseball statistics is what Beane is known for. It is called sabermetrics. And the point of this op-ed is better health care is possible if we use the data, i.e. evidence based health care.
SMP
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I have been reading baseball's preeminent sabermetrician Bill James since his abstracts came out in the mid eighties. You can trace a direct line from those writings to Beane's "Moneyball". Although some say too much emphasis on stats detracts from the game I always found that it enriched the experience. Evidence is fascinating.
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