okansas.blogspot.com Occassional thoughts about orienteering
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
"Signature Significance"
"Signature Significance is the term I [Bill James] use for small-sample events so extraordinary that it is essentially impossible for them to happen to an average team or an average player."
The concept is interesting - a single performance that signals future performance. I have always wondered about short cuts to recognizing orienteering potential. I have some theories. Maybe seeing how quickly an orienteer adapts to a new (for them) type of terrain or situation. The idea being that quickly figuring out how to orienteer in some sort of special terrain signals future performance.
Signature significance can also be used to identify especially bad performance. In fact, the Bill James quote is from an article where he looks at the Kansas City Royals recent streak of losing 5 baseball games in a row by the scores of 12-5, 12-5, 10-5, 7-1, and 12-6.
