Alum Author Ben Lindbergh '01 Speaks to Boys About Baseball Statistics

Yesterday Saint David's alum Ben Lindbergh '01, co-author of The Only Rule Is It Has to Work, returned to Saint David's to speak to eighth and fifth grade classes. Ben's book details baseball strategies that he and co-author Sam Miller implemented when they were offered a chance to manage the baseball operations of an independent minor league team, using advanced statistical analysis.

Ben, also a graduate of Regis and Georgetown, is a writer/podcaster for The Ringer, an online site that covers sports, culture and tech. He told the boys that Saint David's provided him with great preparation for a writing career, and that he had gravitated toward writing and history classes throughout his studies.

Our fifth graders, who are currently studying baseball statistics in math, asked Ben questions about the various stats used in the sport including batting average, slugging percentage and on-base percentage, and he recommended looking at these in tandem in order to get a better sense of a player's overall production.

The boys enjoyed hearing from a Saint David's alumnus about how he was able to turn his interest into baseball and writing into a career writing about the innovative use of statistics in the game. It is always terrific to welcome back a Saint David's graduate, and these sessions have a strong impact on our current students.

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