1. "In Ithaca, New York, where I live, the cable TV system carries
most New York Yankee baseball games. One August night, sportscasters
Phil Rizzuto and Bobby Murcer were calling a slow game between the
Yankees and the Milwaukee Brewers. Between pitches, Rizzuto was
looking over his record sheets and remarked that the Brewers had done
much better in day games than in games played at night. Murcer
checked his own records and found that the Yankees, too, had a much
higher winning percentage during the day. With characteristic
enthusiasm, Rizzuto then conjectured that all teams have better
records for day games. In a brisk exchange of the sort that makes
summer evenings in Ithaca seem to fly by, the two then spent the rest
of the inning discussing the poor lighting conditions in American
League parks and various other difficulties that might help account
for why teams do so poorly at night."
(Frank, Robert H. Choosing
the Right Pond: Human Behavior and the Quest for
Status
There is something terribly wrong in the discussion described in the
previous paragraph. What is it and why is it wrong?
2. Suppose that a cure for all cancer is discovered. Use the discussion of the section to explain why this cure will increase the percentage of people who die from heart disease.
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