So I’ve moved on to phase two and began interviewing Key Informants over the last three weeks or so. This includes one statistician who works for a MLB franchise, two journalists for national media outlets, and one major figure in the history of sabermetrics. In some ways, I wish that there wasn’t any confidentiality issues that I had to deal with because the two journalists are very well known and I’m tickled that I got to talk to them. The confidentiality and ethics, although necessary can suck though. I think my analysis would be much sharper if I could provide the context of exactly who these people are. Obviously, it’s a tradeoff, as I don’t think many people would agree to be interviewed since they have high profile positions, but I think things would make more sense if I could provide identities.

On the other hand, Voros McCracken agreed to waive the confidentiality of the interview. And I’m happy to say that it was a most entertaining and enlightening talk. His personal story is fascinating to me. For those of you who don’t know, Voros Read the rest of this entry »