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The Analytics Guy Failed to Compute One Thing: How to Be Accepted in Mexico

HAGERSTOWN, Md. — On a wintry night in December, Anton Dahbura sat on his couch, transfixed by a baseball game 2,000 miles away in Mexico.

He winced and shuffled notes. A few times, he yelled at three computer and television screens streaming the game.

“Wait,” he exclaimed nervously as the manager of the team he was closely following trudged to the mound. “What’s he doing?”

Few baseball fans in the United States were even aware of the game he was obsessing over: Charros de Jalisco versus Venados de Mazatlán. But to Dahbura, a data analytics consultant hired by the Charros, it was like Game 7 of the World Series, and his frustration mounted as detailed scouting reports he had prepared were overlooked once again.