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Famous Sabermetrician: “screw the data; I choose hope instead”

Some bad news for a good man. Dave Cameron of FanGraphs writes:

Last week, I was informed that I have Acute Myeloid Leukemia, a particularly nasty member of the cancer family. History has given my doctors all kinds of data about cure rates and life expectancy, and statistical analysis is helping them decide just what kind of chemotherapy I’ll be taking in a few hours, which I’m really thankful for ... but I know the outcome I want, and the fact that the data suggests it may not happen is irrelevant to me.

Statistics can be powerful, useful tools, and at times, they can be critical to understanding what to do. Other times, though, they’re useless, and so, for this situation, I say screw the data; I choose hope instead.


I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Dave. A quiet and somewhat unassuming man behind whose eyes and in that head a brilliant storm rages. We hear optimism whenever something bad happens. Sometimes it’s empty. In Dave’s case, I believe in it and in him 100%.

Best wishes David. Beat Leukemia like it’s the friggin’ Seattle Mariners.