During
this year’s baseball postseason, I stumbled upon an innovative project
by Russ Maschmeyer. I’m really inspired by his creativity in developing
The Diehard Index, which he uses to measure and rank the die-hardness
of each Major League Baseball team’s fan base. More important,
however, I’m impressed by the plausibility of his index being accurate, as the data seems to support conventional wisdom on this subject.
It reminds me of The Economist’s
Big Mac Index. But, he goes a step further in developing an information
graphic that is both beautiful and extremely straightforward.
According
to Maschmeyer, “I’ve created a formula that can accurately predict how
fervently supportive a team’s fans are. Here I’ve calculated the DHI
for Major League Baseball, but ostensibly you could do this for any
league with the right amount of data.” I love the tone set in this
statement; it’s an invitation for others to try similar analysis.
Degree Project: School of Visual Arts 2010
More of Maschmeyer’s work can be found here.
—Josh Ritchie
More of Maschmeyer’s work can be found here.
—Josh Ritchie
