A published study by Josh Pahigian on stadium statues discussed on NPR's Weekend Edition

In an April 15, 2012 NPR Weekend Edition radio column 'Sports And Life: Head-To-Head,' host Rachel Martin and NPR sports correspondent Mike Pesca discuss a research study co-authored by Josh Pahigian, an adjunct professor in UNE’s Department of English and Language Studies. 

The paper appeared in the March 2012 issue of The Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports.  Pahigian and three statistics/mathematics professors at the University of Sheffield in England collaborated on the paper entitled “Modeling Stadium Statue Subject Choice in U.S. Baseball and English Soccer.”

Four minutes into their Weekend Edition radio column, Martin and Pesca discuss, among other conclusions of Pahigian's study, that Carl Yaztrzemski and Tom Seaver are the most overlooked baseball icons from a statue perspective and that Bill Mazeroski and Nolan Ryan are the two least deserving players who have been honored with ballpark statues.

Pahigian and his co-authors found that players who played most or all of their careers at one club or franchise and those active in the 1950s and 1960s were most likely to be depicted. This latter finding, in particular, suggests that the role of a statue as a nostalgia/heritage marketing object is dependent in part on the “chance” effect of birth era. Distinct characteristics of each sport, such as baseball franchise relocation and international soccer success, were also found to have a significant effect upon the probability of depiction. 

Pahigian is the author of seven books on baseball, including The Ultimate Baseball Road Trip: A Fan's Guide to Major League Stadiums, 2nd edition.

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