[vincesanity82]

Game officials have been quite the topic of discussion lately, what with the former N.B.A. referee Tim Donaghy pleading guilty Wednesday to two felony charges pertaining to gambling. But as salacious as explicit association with bettors has been, it was implicit association — the tendency for people in split-second interactions to favor members of their own race — that drew the attention of some prominent economists.

The day before Donaghy’s plea, four academics released a study that found that Major League Baseball umpires called strikes at different rates depending on a pitcher’s ethnicity. Specifically, an umpire will — with all other matters such as game score and pitcher quality accounted for — call a pitch a strike about 1 percent more often if he and the pitcher are of the same race.

The analysis was conducted by Christopher A. Parsons, an assistant professor of finance at McGill University; Johan Sulaeman, a graduate student at the University of Texas; Michael C. Yates, an assistant professor of finance at Auburn University; and Daniel S. Hamermesh, a professor of economics at the University of Texas. Their work was spurred by the release of a similar paper in May, in which an Ivy League professor and graduate student found that primarily white N.B.A. refereeing crews whistled fouls (again, all else being equal) more frequently against black players than against white players.

A Finding of Umpire Bias Is Small but Still Striking - New York Times

[EmpireWF]

I can't believe this study is all that meaningful. Does anyone really think an ump is calling balls/strikes based on the race of the pitcher? Some umps make some bad calls but it's human error. I really can't see race playing any role.

[legend]

One percent? Doesn't seem like a number that any conclusion can be based on to me. You have to remember that there are not that many black pitchers for black umpires to call balls and strikes for, so it's not like you have a huge collection of data that is telling you something obvious here. And again, somebody with too much time on thier hands if they are conducting a study like this. I wonder who pays for these, and I hope it's not the taxpayer!