ABSTRACT
Sport tends to lag behind with the implementation of technological developments and so it was that, unfortunately, the Society for American Baseball Research emerged just as artificial intelligence as a discipline was entering its first winter in 1971. That inaugural meeting, which coincided with the 1971 Hall of Fame induction ceremony, was attended by what became known as the Cooperstown 16 – the founding fathers, so to speak. In the intervening years, that number has grown to more than 5,000 with more than 20 different subgroups studying specific areas of the game, including what is now known as Sabermetrics, a term first coined by Bill James. The Moneyball “story” centers on Billy Beane, the General Manager of the Oakland Athletics baseball club. He manages to deliver a winning team on a budget less than a third of those of the bigger teams such as the New York Yankees.
