In many ways, baseball is a numbers game: Strikeouts, home runs, batting averages, innings pitched, complete games, runs batted in, earned run averages, and players left on base in scoring position in the bottom of the ninth inning when a left-handed batter flies out. It’s also a game played on a field of considerable geometric regularity. The baseball “diamond,” for instance, is properly a square, 30 yards on each side.
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