I’m back from Cambridge, where I moderated a panel on minor and emerging sports leagues at the The MIT Sloan Sports Business Conference on Saturday. It was the first of what I am hoping becomes an annual event, and by any measurement, it was a rousing success. The event was sold out in the final days leading up to it, our panel was a great success, and the other two I attended, revolving around personnel decisions and league management both featured outstanding content and top of the line participants. The real highlight for me, however, came in the first 20 minutes. Giving the opening keynote was Toronto General Manager J.P. Ricchiardi, who gave an entertaining and informative talk about running the Blue Jays. During the Q&A session, an attendee asked Ricciardi about some of the statistics that he uses to evaluate talent, and as part of his response Ricciardi said, (and I’m paraphrasing here), “there are a lot of new stats out there – I guess VORP is the big thing now days.” Little did J.P. know that sitting about 30 feet away from him, and one row in front of me, was our own Keith Woolner, an MIT alum and the inventor of said measurement. It was a great piece of recognition for Baseball Prospectus and the work we do here, and also a reminder that we need to remember there are all sorts of people behind the scenes here that might not see their name on the home page every day that are nonetheless as essential, if not more so, than those who do.
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