Getting the Numbers Right Isn’t Always Easy as 1-2-3

The calls and letters have trickled in for years now, and as much as the seasons changed, the complaints remained rather consistent. Until lately, when the trickle became more of a stream.

Each Tuesday on most weeks during the school year, we publish statistical leaders for the high school football, boys’ basketball and baseball teams in the Valley and Ventura County regions. On Wednesdays, we run similar packages for girls’ basketball and softball.

A cut to the quick: Some of those statistics are probably wrong.

We’ve known that all along. And it’s about time we shared that little secret.

During football season, we take full responsibility for our statistics. We have reporters and correspondents personally covering just about every local team that plays 11-man football. They keep the statistics and we run them.

But in basketball, baseball and softball we rely on coaches and school-appointed statisticians to call or fax us with their statistics. And that’s where things get muddled.

This is not a don’t-shoot-the-messenger script. We’re not complaining, just explaining.

The bottom line is this: There are many, many ways to mess up statistics and the well-intentioned folks who track such things for our high school teams have probably found most of them.

Look closely (we try) and you might find a pitcher whose record changes from 5-3 one week to 7-2 the next. Or, you might find a basketball team that scores 50 points a game but somehow has two guards who combine to average 32 points and 16 assists.

Some statisticians don’t know rules and definitions. Some just haven’t mastered the process of keeping accurate scores. Some coaches can’t either.

And yes, there are surely a dastardly few who would stoop to inflating numbers on purpose in an effort to make their players and teams look a little better. Indeed, there are people who naively believe college coaches and even professional scouts recruit off such lists.

Well, if they do, they’re bad college coaches and they won’t be professional scouts for very long.

Sports professionals know full well that moms and dads and boyfriends and girlfriends are plentiful among the masses of high school statisticians.

Maybe that’s not the way it should be, but it’s the way it has to be. Which is why you won’t be seeing any major changes.

We’re going to keep running the lists of statistical leaders while striving to make them as accurate as possible. We owe that to all of the athletes.

Mike Hiserman is sports editor of the Valley and Ventura editions.