Baseball is a game of statistics, but numbers can be deceiving. It’s possible for one batter to outperform another in both halves of the season and still receive a lower batting average:
| First Half | Second Half | Total Season | |
| Player A | 4/10 (.400) | 25/100 (.250) | 29/110 (.264) |
| Player B | 35/100 (.350) | 2/10 (.200) | 37/110 (.336) |
This is an example of Simpson’s paradox, a mathematical quirk that arises occasionally in social science and medical statistics.