Alex Salkever looks at the new age of sports technology in a Business Week special report. Scouts have laptops. Coaches are viewing digital replays on DVD. Some nameless writer from Baseball Prospectus apparently got a job in the Toronto front office. It's a revolution, no question. But there's surprising resistance -- according to Michael Lewis, whose soon-to-be-published Moneyball is eagerly anticipated, "in the top ranks of baseball, many old salts continue to chafe at the scientific study of their beloved game."
The teams that really "get it" are still in the minority, though there's a trend among several other front offices toward gradually integrating new ideas with established methods. As someone on the older and saltier side of the ZLC spectrum, I feel compelled to point out that raw data, processing power and high-tech gadgets don't mean a thing, unless they are in the hands of someone who really knows the game. GIGO is the first thing I learned about computers, and it will always apply.
The teams that really "get it" are still in the minority, though there's a trend among several other front offices toward gradually integrating new ideas with established methods. As someone on the older and saltier side of the ZLC spectrum, I feel compelled to point out that raw data, processing power and high-tech gadgets don't mean a thing, unless they are in the hands of someone who really knows the game. GIGO is the first thing I learned about computers, and it will always apply.
