CD-B DIRECTORY
COSMIC DATA BANK
PROJECT 2: THE NATIONAL LACROSSE LEAGUE
The National Lacrosse League for the 2002-2003 season consisted of 12 professional teams located in Canada and the United States of America:
 | Vancouver Ravens Calgary Roughnecks Toronto Rock |
| Ottawa Rebels New Jersey Storm Philadelphia Wings |
| New York Saints Colorado Mammoth Rochester Knighthawks |
| Columbus Landsharks Albany Attack Buffalo Bandits |
The first project to be completed and posted on this website spotlighted the men of the National Hockey League. I thought it would be very interesting to do a comparison study of NLL players with the men of the NHL since the two games are very similar in many ways. The major difference is that hockey is played on an ice rink with the players in outfitted in protective gear while the men of the NLL often play on a grass surface with very little gear to protect them from personal injury. Both are fast paced games played by opposing teams with scoring achieved by getting a puck or ball past a goalie and into the goal. Both lacrosse and hockey are action filled games with hard body contact between the players.
From the 12 lacrosse teams, birth information for 285 players has been collected. This consists of the name of the player, the day, month and year of birth and the city of birth. All of the data was collected from various websites on the internet or from the team management.
The players range in age from 21 - 43 years with 251 of the players born between 1970 and 1981. For a detailed look at births by month in Canada and the United States of America use this link Births in Canada and U.S.A.
Month and Sector of Birth
If we divide the total number of players by 12, we find that the theoretical average number of players born each month to be 24. The actual count of the NLL players is as follows:
| January - 28 May - 23 September - 27 |
| February - 27 June - 27 October - 16 |
| March - 24 July - 24 November - 23 |
| April - 21 August - 24 December - 21 |
The problem with counting by month is that all calendar months are not created equally, some months having fewer or more days than other months. Another way to make a count is to divide the sky around the Sun into 12 equally sized 30° sectors. By measuring the position of the Sun in the sectors on the day of a player's birth, the outcome for the count is different, as shown below:
| sector 1 - 26 sector 4 - 24 sector 7 - 15 sector 10 - 28 |
| sector 2 - 20 sector 5 - 23 sector 8 - 19 sector 11 - 19 |
| sector 3 - 32 sector 6 - 32 sector 9 - 22 sector 12 - 25 |
SECTORS & SEASONS
The sectors relate to the seasons in the following way:
- SPRING: Sectors 1, 2, 3 (April 22 - June 21)*
- SUMMER: Sectors 4, 5, 6 (June 22 - September 21)*
- AUTUMN: Sectors 7, 8, 9 (September 22 - December 21)*
- WINTER: Sectors 10, 11, 12 (December 22 - April 21)*
* These dates may vary by a day or two according to the calendar year.
For the NLL, the sector totals for the seasons are as follows:
| sectors 1, 2, 3 Total = 78 players born in the Spring sectors 27% of the NLL players |
| sectors 4, 5, 6 Total = 79 players born in the Summer sectors 28% |
| sectors 7, 8, 9 Total = 56 players born in the Autumn sectors 20% |
| sectors 10, 11, 12 Total = 72 players born in the Winter sectors 25% |
For the NHL, the sector totals for the seasons are as follows:
| sectors 1,2,3 The Spring sectors provide 28% of the NHL players |
| sectors 4,5,6 The Summer sectors provide 23% |
| sectors 7,8,9 The Autumn sectors provide 19% |
| sectors 10,11,12 The Winter sectors provide 31% |
As one can see, there is an agreement between the two sports in that the Autumn season provides the fewest number of players to both rosters: 19% for lacrosse and 20% for hockey. The Spring and Summer seasons provide the most lacrosse players at 55% of the total. The Winter and Spring seasons provide 59% of the hockey players. This might seem like common sense, but here is evidence for the first time.
Continue with this study of the NLL on Page 2