“Why aren’t we using sports to teach science?” – Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World

Sagan was apparently a huge fan of basketball as a way to teach science and mathematics. In his book, The Demon-Haunted World, Sagan’s bit about using basketball to teach probability and logic is classic for him—he’s always looking for sneaky scaffolding. Take what people already care about, then lace it with critical thinking. It’s one of his most important insights: you don’t kill wonder with data—you just give it depth.

Of course, you can do the same with baseball, too. More recently, Major League Baseball is one of the few major sports that’s embraced open data and invited fans to think like analysts. It’s practically a STEM learning tool at this point. I’d argue baseball fans today know more about statistics than half the Senate. Meanwhile, many fantasy sports addicts have built entire lives around predictive modeling, but still believe climate change is a liberal hoax. Sagan’s point exactly.