Math Activities: The Numbers of Major League Baseball

  

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Last weekend marks one of my favorite times of the year – the opening games for Major League Baseball. I always find the winter months to be a bit boring because I can’t watch my favorite team, the New York Yankees, play ball each evening. Of course, you can imagine that there’s more to the baseball season than just balls and strikes. Like so many things that I am passionate about, I always look for the math in baseball. Finding mathematical connections to students’ interests will lead to more successful lessons and more motivated students. There are so many possible math activities using baseball statistics, but it’s up to you to be sure the math involved is appropriate for each student’s ability level.

My favorite lessons dealing with baseball and mathematics are those that help students understand decimals. One of the most common uses of decimals in the “real world” is in describing baseball batting averages. We see numbers like .305 or .240, but do the majority of baseball fans know what these numbers really mean? It’s a great topic to delve into, because it will help the students better understand the game and what a batter has to do to improve his average. At the same time, it will help students understand the value of decimal numbers. While the batting average is the most familiar statistic that uses decimals, similar studies can be completed using a batter’s on-base or slugging percentage. Another great activity is to help students determine a team’s winning percentage by dividing the number of wins by total games played. It might even be fun to have a student track a player's or team's statistics for an extended period of time.

If you take one look at the Major League Baseball site, you will see a plethora of statistics that students are able to work with. And because teams play almost every night, the statistics change daily, so there’s never a shortage of math to be completed! So go ahead, take baseball from the field into the classroom. I’m sure that your students will have a ball!