Briefs

By Alan Schwarz, NEWSWEEK, Sep 29, 2003.

Baseball statistics are as parochial as they're sacred. Can an AI software expert change the business?

Tendu founder Ronald Antinouja wants baseball fans to expect more from statistics.

TODAY ANTINOJA'S YOUNG company, Tendu, is aiming to develop data software not for some town softball league, but for Major League Baseball�and to do so with the precision and detail the national pastime has never seen. Some might ask if the world truly needs this: after all, baseball is already the home of such esoterica as slugging averages against lefties on artificial turf, and homers on 2-and-1 outside curveballs. But fans, teams and media only seem to thirst for more. Antinoja sold his house for $1.2 million to finance his idea. �The best data out there hasn�t been seen yet,� says Antinoja, 54, bubbling like the kid scorekeeper he once was. �I�m going to do a better job than anyone ever.�

As a newcomer to the stat biz, Antinoja served only two clubs this season: the Mets and the Oakland A�s (who got the data free of charge because their pitching coach, Rick Peterson, helped develop the software).

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