The research of sports economists often addresses issues of interest to nonacademics. The shared interests often lead to interactions that have benefits and costs. The benefits center on nonacademic research—found in the ‘‘sabermetric’’ and ‘‘APBRmetric’’ communities—that can inform the work of academic economists studying sports. However, nonacademic research should be interpreted with caution because it is not subject to an academic peer review. This essay discusses how economists can benefit from sabermetric advances while avoiding its pitfalls.
Albert, J., & Bennett, J. ( 2003). Curve ball: Baseball, statistics, and the role of chance in the game. New York: Copernicus .
2.
Bellotti, R. ( 1996). The points created basketball book, 1992-93. Night Work Publishing Co.: New Brunswick.
3.
Berri, D.J. ( 1999, Fall). Who is most valuable? Measuring the player’s production of wins in the National Basketball Association. Managerial and Decision Economics, 20, 411-427.
4.
Berri, D.J. ( 2008). A simple measure of worker productivity in the National Basketball Association. In B. Humphreys, & D. Howard (Eds.), The Business of Sport (3 vol, pp. 1-40). Westport, CT: Praeger .
5.
Berri, D.J., & Krautmann, A. ( 2006, July). Shirking on the court: Testing for the dis-incentive effects of guaranteed pay. Economic Inquiry, 44, 536-546.
6.
Berri, D.J., Schmidt, M.B., & Brook, S.L. ( 2006). The wages of wins: Taking measure of the many myths in modern sports. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
7.
Birnbaum, P. ( 2006). ‘‘Chopped Liver,’’ Sabermetric Research Web site. Retrieved on November 11, 2009, from http://sabermetricresearch.blogspot.com/2006/10/chopped-liver.html
8.
Blass, A.A. ( 1992). Does the Baseball Labor Market contradict the human capital model of investment? The Review of Economics and Statistics , 74, 261-268.
9.
Bradbury, J.C. ( 2007a). The Baseball economist: The real game exposed. Plum, New York: Dutton.
10.
Bradbury, J.C. ( 2007b). Does the Baseball Labor Market properly value pitchers ? Journal of Sports Economics, 8, 616-632.
11.
Bradbury, J.C. ( 2008). Statistics performance analysis in sport. In B. R. Humphreys, & D. R. Howard (Eds.), The business of sport: Volume 3: Bridging research and practice (pp. 41-56). Westport, CT: Praeger.
12.
Bruggink, T.H., & Rose, D.R. Jr. (1990, April). Financial restraint in the free agent labor market for Major League Baseball: Players look at strike three. Southern Economic Journal, 56, 1029-1043.
13.
Durland, D. Jr., & Sommers, P.M. ( 1991, March). Collusion in Major League Baseball: An empirical test. Journal of Sport Behavior, 14, 19-29.
14.
Goff, B.L., McCormick, R.E., & Tollison, R.D. (2002, March). Racial Integration as an innovation: Empirical evidence from sports leagues. American Economic Review, 92, 16-26.
15.
Heeren, D. ( 1992). Basketball abstract, 1991-92 edition. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc.
16.
Hill, J.R. ( 1985, Winter). The threat of free agency and exploitation in professional baseball: 1976-1979. Quarterly Review of Economics and Business, 25, 68-82.
17.
Hill, J.R., & Spellman, W. ( 1983, Winter). Professional baseball: The reserve clause and salary structure. Industrial Relations, 22, 1-19.
18.
Hollinger, J. ( 2002). Pro basketball prospectus 2002. Washington, DC: Brassey’s Sports.
19.
James, B. ( 1987). The Bill James Baseball Abstract, 1987 . New York: Ballantine Books.
20.
Jenkins, Jeffery A.1996. A Reexamination of Salary Discrimination in Professional Basketball. Social Science Quarterly77, no. 3 (September): 594-608.
21.
Jewell, R.T. ( 2006). Sports economics: State of the discipline. In J. Fizel (Ed.), Handbook of Sports Economics Research. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe . pp. 9-18.
22.
Kahn, L.M. ( 2000, Summer). The sports business as a labor market laboratory . Journal of Economic Perspectives, 14, 75-94.
23.
Krautmann, A. ( 1990, April). Shirking or stochastic productivity in Major League Baseball?Southern Economic Review, 961-968.
24.
Krautmann, A. ( 1999, April). What’s wrong with Scully-estimates of a player’s marginal revenue product. Economic Inquiry , 37, 369-381.
25.
Krautmann, A., Gustafson, E., & Hadley, L. ( 2000, January). Who pays for minor league training costs? Contemporary Economic Policy, 18, 37-47.
26.
Krautmann, A., & Oppenheimer, M. (2002, February). Contract length and the return to performance in Major League Baseball. Journal of Sports Economics, 3, 6-17.
27.
Krautmann, A., & Oppenheimer, M. (1994, September-October). Free agency and the allocation of labor in Major League Baseball. Managerial and Decision Economics, 15, 459-469.
28.
Krautmann, A., Von Allmen, P., & Berri, D.J. ( 2009). The underpayment of restricted players in North American Sports Leagues. International Journal of Sport Finance, 4, 155-169.
29.
Kruger, J., & Dunning, D. ( 1999). Unskilled and unaware of it: How difficulties in recognizing one’s own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 1121-1134.
30.
Lewin, D., & Rosenbaum, D. ( 2007). The pot calling the kettle black: Are NBA statistical models more irrational than ‘‘irrational’’ decision-makers? Unpublished manuscript.
31.
Lindsey, G. ( 1963). An investigation of strategies in baseball. Operations Research, 7, 477-501.
32.
MacDonald, D.N., & Reynolds, M.O. (1994, September-October). Are baseball players paid their marginal product? Managerial and Decision Economics, 15, 443-457.
33.
Maxcy, J., Fort, R., & Krautmann, A. ( 2002, August). The effectiveness of incentive mechanisms in Major League Baseball. Journal of Sports Economics, 3, 246-255.
34.
McCracken, V. ( 2001). Pitching and defense: How much control do hurlers have? Baseball Prospectus (Web site). Retrieved on November11, 2009 from http://baseballprospectus. com/article.php?articleid=878.
35.
Medoff, M.H. ( 1976). On monopsonistic exploitation in professional baseball . Quarterly Review of Economics and Business, 16, 113-121.
36.
NBA.com.Efficiency: The daily recap. Retrieved from http://www.nba.com/statistics/efficiency.html
37.
Oliver, D. ( 2004). Basketball on paper. Washington DC : Brassey’s Inc.
38.
Peach, J. ( 2004, June). Thorstein Veblen, Ty Cobb, and the evolution of an institution. Journal of Economic Issues, XXXVIII, 327-338.
39.
Porter, P.K., & Scully, G.W. ( 1982). Measuring managerial efficiency: The case of baseball . The Southern Economic Journal, 48, 642-650.
40.
Raimondo, H.J. ( 1983, Spring). Free agents’ impact on the labor market for baseball players. Journal of Labor Research, 4, 183-193.
41.
Scully, G.W.The Business of Major League Baseball. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1989.
42.
Scully, G.W. ( 1974). Pay and performance in Major League Baseball. American Economic Review, 64, 917-930.
43.
Scott, F. Jr., Long, J., & Sompii, K. ( 1985). Salary vs. marginal revenue product under monopsony and competition: The case of professional basketball. Atlantic Economic Journal, 13, 50-59.
44.
Sommers, P.M. ( 1990, December). An empirical note on salaries in Major League Baseball. Social Science Quarterly, 71, 861-867.
45.
Sommers, P.M. ( 1993, June). The influence of salary arbitration on player performance . Social Science Quarterly, 74, 439-443.
46.
Sommers, P.M., & Quinton, N. ( 1982, Summer). Pay and performance in Major League Baseball: The case of the first family of free agents. Journal of Human Resources, 17, 426-436.
47.
Thorn, G., & Palmer, P. ( 1984). The hidden game of baseball: A revolutionary approach to baseball and statistics. New York: Dolphin.
48.
Turocy, T.L. ( 2005, December). Offensive performance, omitted variables, and the value of speed in baseball. Economics Letters, 89, 283-286.
49.
Veblen, T.1899. The Theory of the Leisure Class. Reprint, New York: The New American Library, 1953.
50.
Zimbalist, A. ( 1992a). Salaries and performance: Beyond the Scully model. In P. Sommers (Ed.), Diamonds are forever: The business of baseball (pp. 109-133). The Brookings Institution: Washington, DC.
51.
Zimbalist, A. ( 1992b). Baseball and billions. Basic Books : New York.
