Ironically, I was working on this during much of the end of the game before the recap was even posted. Guess great fans think alike? Hah.

What we have to hope for is a heat wave.

Mostly due to the fact that I couldn’t factor in any road games (half of the games played since mid-may). I thought about including data from the beginning of the season, but it occurred to me that in April and early May you expect it to be that cold out, so maybe it wouldn’t affect the offense as much.

Just a “hey we really don’t score runs when its cold”

But we’re only actually concerned with how the Cubs play in the various weather conditions. Didn’t really take this like it was an excuse, to begin with.

Because I do think that they need to score more in icky weather (exactly for the reason mentioned above, that October games are likely to be chilly) but, there’s a difference between home and road games. When you go on the road for a game and the weather is unseasonable, I think it’s different from having unseasonable weather in your home park… If it were the case that teams (the Cubs or other teams) couldn’t win outside of their home conditions, then teams that play in indoor parks like the Twins or the Rays would be at an absurd disadvantage when on the road. That doesn’t really seem to be the case, though.

Maybe this group of hitters doesn’t do well in cold weather, and maybe the other teams don’t have this problem.

it’s pretty conclusive…

Yes the numbers pencil out but last year the Cubs had a really crappy record when the WGN televised the games. Sometimes stats don’t mean crap. I believe this one of them.

Just because two things have a correlation does not mean they aren’t mutually exclusive.

If your are trying to make an excuse for this team and blame the weather gods for this team underachieving then you really should avoid anyone named Jim Jones, the City of Waco Texas, and black Nikes.

And fine lets play make believe and say this stat is right and the Cubs play crappy in cold weather. Ok, then lets expand this out. You know what happens in October? The Playoffs. You know what else happens in October? ITS COLD!

So for you Math geeks let me spell this out:

CUBS SUCKING = COLD WEATHER.
and
PLAYOFFS = OCTOBER
and
OCTOBER = COLD WEATHER

THEREFORE:

CUBS SUCKING = PLAYOFFS!

So to all you that think these stats are anything more than coincidence please realized that this belief means according to your logic the Cubs will suck again if they happen to make the playoffs.

How about we all act like adults and just hope this team has collective underachieved and had a crappy start of the season (you know April and May when it’s cold) and that they will start getting better as the season goes on (you know July and August when it gets hot) and stop trying to find lame silver bullet excuses for this team underachieving.

literally now means figuratively. has to be one of the only words in the english language to mean the opposite of what it once meant.

btw, thanks for the info original poster. any statisticians want to do a regression/signficance analysis on the data provided in the chart?

I didn’t realize my mistake in usage with that until recently. Probably should have used “seriously” or “really”.

But I found this at the dictionary website. Funny. I am not alone! :)

Usage note:
Since the early 20th century, literally has been widely used as an intensifier meaning "in effect, virtually," a sense that contradicts the earlier meaning "actually, without exaggeration": The senator was literally buried alive in the Iowa primaries. The parties were literally trading horses in an effort to reach a compromise. The use is often criticized; nevertheless, it appears in all but the most carefully edited writing. Although this use of literally irritates some, it probably neither distorts nor enhances the intended meaning of the sentences in which it occurs. The same might often be said of the use of literally in its earlier sense "actually": The garrison was literally wiped out: no one survived.

That interests me would be to look at the humidity during the various games to see what humidity levels are conducive to balls leaving Wrigley and whether or not the Cubs performance in the cold weather could be linked to that. I think that would require more data than I have access to, though.

By the way, declines in pirates don’t cause global warming – it causes an increase in ninjas. :)

he has a point … regardless, this team is so mercurial it doesn’t seem to matter what the temperature is.

Cause you can have an above average day in April or May that would be equivalent to a below average day in June or July – so what exactly has the difference been between the first two months & the last two? None.

Unfortunately this team has been uniformly crappy the entire season, and in fact, more so in other ballparks: 25 losses on the road versus16 at Wrigley.

I believe you have a little more research ahead of you professor.

That’s a VERY small range. Try again and make the range 51 to 81.

I went back to my spreadsheet and plugged in the opposing runs scored alongside the same degrees from difference column I used for the original chart. Of course, this comprises six teams, so I have no idea if there’s any significance to it or not.

Why is this so hard to take with a grain of salt?

that would be an excuse.

Saying “Hey, its true… we ARE scoring fewer runs when its chilly” is an OBSERVATION.

that harden pitches better in cooler weather? What was the temp in his last blowout?

and possibly the most difficult thing to do in sports.

Your sentence structure is FASCINATING.

Say that an offense that couldn’t score in below normal temperatures was a good offense, but it is important to note that the temperatures have been below normal for a long stretch of time this summer. It’s not exactly normal circumstances.

To spout off without reading the content.

reading comprehension is not your strongest suit.