No wonder Clemens' kid can't hit minor league pitching

[Bench]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071116/lf_nm_life/initials_performance_dc

"Researchers who studied the impact of initials found that baseballs players whose first or last name starts with the letter K, which signifies a strikeout, tended to strike out more often than other players.

In baseball, players aim to avoid striking out. But after looking at 93 years of Major League baseball data and poring over more than 6,000 player names, the authors found that those whose names began with a K struck out more than others."

[MikeyBoy]

I wonder what kind of effect Dave Kingman had on the overall data?

[pravata]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071116/lf_nm_life/initials_performance_dc

"Researchers who studied the impact of initials found that baseballs players whose first or last name starts with the letter K, which signifies a strikeout, tended to strike out more often than other players.

In baseball, players aim to avoid striking out. But after looking at 93 years of Major League baseball data and poring over more than 6,000 player names, the authors found that those whose names began with a K struck out more than others."

Are they vying for an Ig® Nobel Prize for 2008?

this years winners included,

LINGUISTICS: Juan Manuel Toro, Josep B. Trobalon and Núria Sebastián-Gallés, of Universitat de Barcelona, for showing that rats sometimes cannot tell the difference between a person speaking Japanese backwards and a person speaking Dutch backwards.

ECONOMICS: Kuo Cheng Hsieh, of Taichung, Taiwan, for patenting a device, in the year 2001, that catches bank robbers by dropping a net over them.
http://www.ignobel.com/ig/ig-pastwinners.html

[Bench]

LINGUISTICS: Juan Manuel Toro, Josep B. Trobalon and Núria Sebastián-Gallés, of Universitat de Barcelona, for showing that rats sometimes cannot tell the difference between a person speaking Japanese backwards and a person speaking Dutch backwards.

I particularly like the "sometimes" in that description.

[subnuclear]

I just downloaded the paper.  It is unbelievable.  Anyway, 18.8 % chance to strike out per plate appearance if you have a last or first name with the letter K.   17.2% is the average.   They did not say whether they limited the sample to position players or included pitchers.  They show its statistically significant.  I feel like driving an ice-pick through my eyeball reading it. 

It was "web-published" btw, without peer-review. 

[Full disclosoure : both my first name and last name start with 'K'.   I can't hit a baseball to save my life.]

[Duman]

I went through top 100 in career strike outs and here are the K names:

10 - Dave Kingman
16- Harmon Killebrew
25- Ken Griffey Jr.
48 - Jeff Kent
100- Kirk Gibson

That doesn't seem disproportionate for the number of names with the letter.

[VirtualBob]

I went through top 100 in career strike outs and here are the K names:

10 - Dave Kingman
16- Harmon Killebrew
25- Ken Griffey Jr.
48 - Jeff Kent
100- Kirk Gibson

That doesn't seem disproportionate for the number of names with the letter.

How about a remedial course in rate stats versus counting stats? 

[HurricaneDavid]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/baseball/mlb/wires/04/07/2060.ap.bbc.college.baseball.notes.adv08.1214/

[Holly]

I went through top 100 in career strike outs and here are the K names:

10 - Dave Kingman
16- Harmon Killebrew
25- Ken Griffey Jr.
48 - Jeff Kent
100- Kirk Gibson

That doesn't seem disproportionate for the number of names with the letter.

I think "n" is the culprit.

[hillbillyken]

Well the alltime stike out leader at night on astro-turf in citys starting with the letter c is Tony Perez!
So where is your "K" theory know? huh? Yeah!

[Limey]

ECONOMICS: Kuo Cheng Hsieh, of Taichung, Taiwan, for patenting a device, in the year 2001, that catches bank robbers by dropping a net over them.

Do they have to dress up like apes and do this from horseback?

[pravata]

Do they have to dress up like apes and do this from horseback?

Yes. Yes they do.