Question

1. Why was the “reverse-order draft” invented?

2. Why did the 0.400 hitter vanish in baseball?

Answer 1

1. The reverse order draft was invented in 1936 by the National Football League. It was introduced as a measure to increase competitive balance, by letting the worst teams choose first from the incoming talent of that year, giving them an opportunity to improve their performance. By doing this, at least in theory it was felt that this would lead to narrowing the gap between the best and worst teams in the league.

2. It is generally believed that the sport played dictates the level of competitive imbalance. To see why, let us understand these two propositions-

Firstly, athletic talent is normally distributed. The very best athletes are usually in the right tale of the distribution.

Secondly, there are limits to the athletic ability of human beings, no matter how much a person trains.

Therefore, one can say that there would not be a large difference in the talent level of the very best athletes. If the population expanded sufficiently, the ability of the best players in a league to distinguish themselves from their peers at a level that is above average would lessen. In other words, the 0.400 hitter—or a hitter well above average—would vanish. The baseball league draws upon an underlying population that is quite large and would thus be expected to be relatively balanced. Hence, with the narrowing in the distribution of talent, the standard deviation of performance would fall, which would mean the 0.400 hitter vanishes from the scene