# Baseball averages puzzler--500 AB in 1/2 season!

**URL:** <https://community.cartalk.com/t/baseball-averages-puzzler-500-ab-in-1-2-season/75039>\
**Category:** The Show\
**Created:** [October 18, 2012, 4:18am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/baseball-averages-puzzler-500-ab-in-1-2-season/75039 "2012-10-18T04:18:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Bronzini](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9f8e36/32.png) [@Bronzini](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Bronzini)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 4:18am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/baseball-averages-puzzler-500-ab-in-1-2-season/75039/1 "2012-10-18T04:18:04Z")

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How did Bluto manage 500 at-bats in 1/2 season?? It is not mathematically impossible, but certainly VERY VERY VERY UNLIKELY based on the way the game is currently played. B-O-G-U-S (if we want to use “real world” situations).

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**Author:** ![texases](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/texases/32/862_2.png) [@texases](https://community.cartalk.com/u/texases)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 5:24am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/baseball-averages-puzzler-500-ab-in-1-2-season/75039/2 "2012-10-18T05:24:31Z")

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Then just divide all the values by, say, 4. Same result.

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**Author:** ![EllyEllis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f14d63/32.png) [@EllyEllis](https://community.cartalk.com/u/EllyEllis)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 5:28am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/baseball-averages-puzzler-500-ab-in-1-2-season/75039/3 "2012-10-18T05:28:30Z")

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Well, say he played in 81 games, half a season, and batted 4 times a game, that would be only 324 ABs. 5 ABs X 81 games is only 405. Not likely that he batted 500 times.

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**Author:** ![Bronzini](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9f8e36/32.png) [@Bronzini](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Bronzini)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2012, 9:44pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/baseball-averages-puzzler-500-ab-in-1-2-season/75039/4 "2012-10-25T21:44:38Z")

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I got the statistics part, you could give hundreds of realistic examples baseball, but make it real!

Bronzini has had personal experience with this misuse of averages: When our company self-reported 1 defect in 4 units (75% good) for a month, then 1 defect in 50 (98% good) the next month, our customer said our yield was 87% for the period!! They insisted averaging 75% & 98% was a useful, valid stat. Very b-0-g-u-s!