Ron Hunt and 50 HPBs in 1971

[Leo_The_Lip]

I watched Hunt with the Mets, but was aware of this record setting season in 1971: The Year Ron Hunt Got Hit By 50 Pitches | FiveThirtyEight In the article, it points out the Hunt's 50 HBPs is far ahead of #2, and that it is 13 standard deviations above normal. Essentially, nothing in real life is 13 standard deviations above normal. That's how rare a record Hunt set.

[Caporegime]

Originally Posted by Leo_The_Lip

I watched Hunt with the Mets, but was aware of this record setting season in 1971: The Year Ron Hunt Got Hit By 50 Pitches | FiveThirtyEight In the article, it points out the Hunt's 50 HBPs is far ahead of #2, and that it is 13 standard deviations above normal. Essentially, nothing in real life is 13 standard deviations above normal. That's how rare a record Hunt set.

I never saw Hunt play, but #2 on that list, Don Baylor, I remember vividly. He had a very stiff and upright batting stance and simply leaned his left shoulder into the ball if it was close enough to hit him. Opposing catchers and managers used to bitch to the umps all the time about Baylor not making enough of an effort to get out of the way of the ball.

I'm guessing that Hunt must've had a similar approach at the plate. However, Baylor was built like an NFL linebacker and Hunt seemed (from his pics anyway) like a fairly skinny and boney guy. I'd wager that taking all those HBPs was probably a more painful proposition for him than it was for Baylor.

[BPS]

Permit me to be pedantic...

It's kinda disappointing that someone writing for fivethirtyeight doesn't seem to understanding basic statistics.

We often encounter things that are 13 standard deviations away from certain averages. This occurs then the thing we look at (say, an adult elephant) is not part of the population we assume it might be part of (say, a population of mice). If an animal has a weight that is 13 SD away from the average weight of the presumed population, then we might use this as evidence that the animal considered is NOT coming from the population we have presumed. Nothing shocking about that.

From Hunt's success in getting hit we can presume he tried to get hit whereas other players (generally) don't. And, for hit record setting year of getting hit, it is clearly the case he systematically dedicated himself to getting hit to an extent no one before (or since) has done. Hunt was an elephant in a population of mice.

[RchW]

Originally Posted by BPS

Permit me to be pedantic...

It's kinda disappointing that someone writing for fivethirtyeight doesn't seem to understanding basic statistics.

We often encounter things that are 13 standard deviations away from certain averages. This occurs then the thing we look at (say, an adult elephant) is not part of the population we assume it might be part of (say, a population of mice). If an animal has a weight that is 13 SD away from the average weight of the presumed population, then we might use this as evidence that the animal considered is NOT coming from the population we have presumed. Nothing shocking about that.

From Hunt's success in getting hit we can presume he tried to get hit whereas other players (generally) don't. And, for hit record setting year of getting hit, it is clearly the case he systematically dedicated himself to getting hit to an extent no one before (or since) has done. Hunt was an elephant in a population of mice.

Exactly. Hunt makes it clear that getting hit was a major part of his strategy whereas the other players accepted getting hit as a secondary part of a more balanced strategy. Note that his comparables are not contemporaries Hunt played when hitting batters was not seen as worthy of ejection so the whole dynamic was different.

This was not a specific physical achievement like swimming or running where times can be compared and the conditions may be similar.