Jeff Sagarin, the man behind all of the Sagarin Rankings, has pioneered the computerized analysis of sports since well before the Internet and modern computers made it something anyone can do.
Sagarin is nothing short of a numbers savant, working out of his Bloomington home, as he fills his formulas with numbers to spit out the top teams in about any league (the Pacers are currently ranked 19th in his NBA rankings).
But today on The Dan Dakich Show, Sagarin took that whole savant thing to another level. Dakich also lives in Bloomington and is friends with Sagarin, so as the interview began Dakich wanted to show off his friend's talents by asking show producer, Chris May, to state his birthday.
CMay: August 16th, 1982
Dakich: What day of the week is that?
Sagarin: August 16th of 1982 would be a Monday.
Dakich: How about that? Look it up, I guarantee you it's a Monday. Guarantee you. He's freakish with this type of thing. Now how'd you come with that so quick?
Now at this point, I'm figuring Sagarin has some complicated formula flowing through his head that breaks down a year by the days of the week. Actually, it sounds like he does, but that's not how he figured out the answer this time.
Sagarin: OK, 1982 is congruent to 1965 and on Sunday August 8th, 1965 I went to banner day at Shea Stadium, the Mets were playing the Cubs, I think. So if the 8th is a Sunday, the 15th is a Sunday, so the 16th is a Monday.Dakich: There you go, look it up I'll guarantee you he's right. I'm telling you. How fast was that? Now, you didn't even pause on that one.
Sagarin: Yeah, because that was one I kinda knew. See I've got a library of dates in my head that I just remember things that happened. So that was easy, in other words, I went to that doubleheader, so it was easy to work off of.
Oh, sure, the specific date of a doubleheader 34 years ago makes it real easy. And as you might guess, Sagain nailed it. Here's the box score from the second game of the August 8th, 1965 doubleheader between the Mets and Cubs. Yes, it was on a Sunday.
I can't even imagine what else might be in that "library of dates" stored in Sagarin's brain.
Here's the full interview: Jeff Sagarin on The Dan Dakich Show