Statistics gaffes highlight sports history

Heralded in by the computer age, the accuracy and availability of sports statistics have increased dramatically over the past 20 years. Stats that used to be kept on hand-written ledger sheets are now kept -- and double-checked -- by computers.

But computers can do only so much. Almost every statistical mistake in sports can be traced to human error.

As evidenced by a few well-known examples below, these human errors help remind us of the problems caused when we don't heed our eighth-grade math teacher's advice to always double-check our work.

Major League Baseball: By a wide margin, Major League Baseball has had more statistical gaffes than any other sport. Start with the fact that the sport already is heavily numbers-based, then add in that professional stats have been recorded for 134 years, and you end up with a long train of statistical mistakes.

The most famous statistical black eye involves one of baseball's most controversial figures and one of its most hallowed records. No, not Barry Bonds ... but Ty Cobb.

In 1910, Cobb was neck-and-neck with Nap Lajoie for the batting title. Lajoie was gifted seven bunt hits in the season finale by opponents who wanted to see Cobb lose. But Cobb was announced the winner anyway: He had edged Lajoie by less than a thousandth of a point.

Seventy-five years later, the controversy arose again. Researcher Pete Palmer noticed one of Cobb's 1910 games had been counted twice: a 2-for-3 performance. Remove that game, and Cobb would have lost the batting title.

Palmer's discovery also happened to coincide with Pete Rose's chase for Cobb's career hits record, which was listed as 4,191. But with that extra 1910 game removed, Rose was suddenly two hits closer to Cobb's record.

The commissioner's office refused to change the mistake and celebrated with everyone else when Rose got his 4,192nd hit. Too bad that Rose had broken Cobb's record three days earlier.

National Basketball Association: The biggest statistical weakness for the NBA is that it didn't start recording blocked shots and steals until 1973, when the careers of players such as Wilt Chamberlain and Oscar Robertson were pretty much over.

This is important because one of the most popular and straight-forward signs of a great basketball game is reaching double figures in multiple stats. The rarest of the rare is a quadruple-double. It has happened only four times in NBA history -- that we know of.

In order to reach a quadruple double, a player must have at least 10 steals or 10 blocks, to go along with double figures in points, rebounds, and assists. But in the pre-1973 era, when steals and blocks weren't recorded, quadruple-doubles were impossible.

Even when those stats are recorded, problems can strike. Hakeem Olajuwon was credited with a quadruple double in early March 1990, only to have the NBA strip him of the feat by reviewing game footage and revising his assists total from 10 to nine. Olajuwon had the last laugh, though: he put together another quadruple-double just 26 days later -- and that one stuck.

National Football League: Each week, the NFL reviews game footage to ensure its stats are correct. In the fast-paced atmosphere of a football game, the exact yardages of a play -- or even which player tackled another -- can be recorded mistakenly.

For example, in just the first two weeks of this season, almost 70 corrections were made to the stats of teams and players.

But for the most part, the NFL has been able to avoid the large statistical controversies. First, the NFL did not record many stats until recently, so there aren't many really old records that are getting broken -- such as Rose besting Cobb's hit total 60 years after it was set. Second, the NFL has been increasing the length of its schedule faster than MLB has, so many NFL records will be broken merely because players are on the field longer.

Professional Golfers' Association: The slow pace of golf would seem to prevent a lot of the statistical errors made in the NBA and the NFL. But perhaps golf is too slow for its own good. Over the course of playing a round, players can forget exactly how many strokes they have taken.

In a famous example, Rob erto De Vicenzo lost a chance to compete in a playoff at the 1968 Masters because he signed for a final-round 66 even though he shot a 65.

Rather than tying for the lead and going to a playoff, De Vicenzo was left in second place. But it could have been worse. If he'd signed a scorecard with a lower score than he shot, he would have been completely disqualified.

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