Freakonomics

Whatever

The best book I read in the last year is Freakonomics. In short, the authors take an economists looks at interesting questions to try to figure out why. Rather than review the book to tell you why you'll like it, I'll point you to this short article in the NY Times. The question:

If you were to examine the birth certificates of every soccer player in next month's World Cup tournament, you would most likely find a noteworthy quirk: elite soccer players are more likely to have been born in the earlier months of the year than in the later months. If you then examined the European national youth teams that feed the World Cup and professional ranks, you would find this quirk to be even more pronounced. On recent English teams, for instance, half of the elite teenage soccer players were born in January, February or March, with the other half spread out over the remaining 9 months. In Germany, 52 elite youth players were born in the first three months of the year, with just 4 players born in the last three.

What might account for this anomaly? Here are a few guesses: a) certain astrological signs confer superior soccer skills; b) winter-born babies tend to have higher oxygen capacity, which increases soccer stamina; c) soccer-mad parents are more likely to conceive children in springtime, at the annual peak of soccer mania; d) none of the above.

Now I guessed the reason why right away. Is this because I previously read Freakonomics or because I grew up playing youth sports? I don't know, but if you find this interesting, finish the article and then check out the book.