Episode 35: With Chris T (On Baseball and Official Scorekeeping, Data, Fatherhood, Identity in School, Math and Cape Cod)

Welcome back to Jonah Asks!Meet Chris. A husband and father. A baseball and math enthusiast. A data scientist. 0:03Cape Cod BaseballQ. How did you get involved with scorekeeping in the Cape League? My dad became the general manager of the Chatham Anglers, now the Chatham A's. When I was in high school, he found a summer job for me. I learned how to do the official scoring.On future major leaguers staying at Chris' house while playing Cape League:"These guys have a connection. It's the last time before baseball gets serious. I think everyone has pretty fond memories of it. Getting a taste of what it's like--they play every day--but not quite as much pressure as it is once you start getting paid for it."0:10College ExperiencesFirst attending Harvey Mudd in Southern California, then transferring to Bowdoin, in Maine. "Sports Were a Big Part of My Identity"0:22FamilyChris was in junior high when they divorced. He doesn't have specific memories of the divorce. It just happened. His mom moved to Maine. Chris visited his friend Mike in 9th grade. Part of the motivation to transfer to prep school was math. He was running out of classes at the local public high school. 0:30Data Science "Basically I do fancy counting and then tell people about it."Chris is a data scientist in the Bay Area. He's worked for several companies. He works in order to make money so he can spend time with his family and do the things he enjoys, like play sports and score baseball. "Any app that you use is doing an experiment on you at all times and you don't know about it and someone like me is crunching the numbers in the background."0:36Baseball Scorekeeping--From Cape League to Oakland and SFThe Cape League All-Star Game was at Fenway Park. Chris got to score the game at Fenway. He started to think about how to get involved in MLB scoring. He read a book and contacted the author. He got a lucky break. Since 2013, Chris has scored MLB games in Oakland and San Francisco.0:47Analytics in Baseball and Opening Doors We discuss shifting, stolen bases, walks, strikeouts, and home-runs and how data plays into the changes in baseball. Chris would like to help open the doors for more people of color in baseball analytics and create more opportunities.0:56FatherhoodWatching our daughters become more autonomous. Learning how to maintain patience through meltdowns.1:00Trust  We discuss trust in parenting and relationships in general. 1:07Attention and Technology How We Use the PhoneResourcesMapping Stem Inequality -- UNICEFhttps://www.unicef.org/globalinsight/stories/mapping-gender-equality-stem-school-workFive Great STEM Non-ProfitsKhan AcademyCode.orgScratch AcademyRevolution RoboticsGirls Who CodeSupportTo support Jonah Asks, please share episodes, subscribe, or donate directly via Buy Me a Coffee https://www.buymeacoffee.com/jonahasks