sports (and) stats

From Joanne Kaufman in the WSJ...

Do you care—sure you do—that the New York Giants' 45-12 victory over the Washington Redskins Monday evening was the team's highest point total in a road game since they beat the Redskins 51-21 at Griffith Stadium in 1954? Meanwhile, that same night, Chris Paul made only three field goals in 13 attempts when his New Orleans Hornets lost to the Toronto Raptors. It was the third time this month that Mr. Paul missed at least 10 shots from the field in a single game. And now, a shout-out to Marian Gaborik, who just became the first NHL player to score 25 goals this season. He's only the second player in New York Ranger history to hit that mark before Christmas.

The preceding was brought to you by the Elias Sports Bureau, a midtown Manhattan sports information company that serves as the official statistician for Major League Baseball, the NFL, NHL, NBA, WNBA and Major League Soccer, and provides research to media companies such as ESPN....ESB's dominance in what is admittedly a niche market.

The advent of computers a few years later was a game changer...."Suddenly, we could analyze, and there was no logical end to analyzing the data," Mr. Hirdt said. "The trick is to not go over the line. What we do can and has been parodied: 'Oh, those are the guys who tell us how so and so bats on alternate Tuesdays under a full moon.'"