The Uniform Distribution

The goaltenders from my youth – Bill Ranford, Andy Moog, Grant Fuhr – all had jersey numbers inside the low thirties. And quite a lot of the goalies I can contemplate now have numbers inside the low thirties. This purchased me questioning, how do the numbers amount by place all through an important sports activities actions leagues? What traditions, tips, and preferences do they reveal? So, after some python scraping and excel manipulating we uncover ourselves with a paradox: uniform distributions that aren’t uniform distributions. Download them in your self in tower or poster format.

So what can we see inside the numbers? Well, Jackie Robinson’s league-wide retired #42 is form of clear, whereas the NHL’s solely league-wide retired amount, #99, is not virtually as apparent given the thin number of 90s to start out with and its place on the end of the spectrum. 

The NFL’s arcane and rigid numbering system moreover reveals up pretty clearly. Something I was completely unaware of until going by this practice.

Plus there’s an fascinating parallel between soccer and hockey relating to picking numbers for the defence the place every seem to favor single digits that are not #1. Both leagues moreover like to supply goalies the #1, though you might even see the NHL’s three hottest goalie numbers are #30, #31, and #35 which I’m completely happy to say are Bill Ranford, Grant Fuhr, and Andy Moog’s numbers respectively. I’ll take into consideration that’s the leagues current avid gamers paying homage to the hero’s of my youth, though it is further attainable has to do with customized.

So click on on by and inform us what you uncover inside the graphics.