Final Four Teams 1979-2011 by State

If you're like 99% of Americans you have no idea where Butler is located, let's be honest here. I'm a sports fan, but even I had to Wiki it while creating this map (and that wasn't the only one). With that in mind I created the heat-map below to visually represent STATES with the most Final Four appearances to its credit from 1979-2011.

It should come as no surprise that North Carolina owns this map, with Duke, North Carolina, and NC State (combining for 21 trips) but Final Four representation is pretty evenly spread around (with the exception of the ENTIRE north west).

Note: Butler is in Indiana (now you know).

Here's Google's breakdown of the NCAA D1 Teams for this year.




Data provided by CBS Sports

NBA Attendance 2001-2011 Interactive

Let's take a look at the NBA Average Team Attendance from the 2000-01 season to this season.

Things to look for:

1. Cav's attendance before LeBron and after LeBron (going from last to 9th)
2. Blake Griffen NOT having the same impact on average fan attendance that LeBron had for the Cavs
3. The Pistons owned the mid-2000's? Who knew?
4. The Bulls have been a great draw all decade...I don't remember them being good for the first few years however...good fans? cheap tickets? No clue.

Word of caution, the bubbles get a bit annoying in this chart so use the tabs at the top right to switch to bar chart if you want to campare year by year. The line charts can show you something nice as well here, but it gets busy with all the teams/lines.

NFL Team Valuations Interactive 2004-2010

This chart is pretty straight forward, just press play. You can also change the axes or use the tabs on the top right to change the chart type.

TIP: To track one or more team trends, switch to BAR Chart, highlight the team and press play. You can also change the axes to measure different combinations of data.



Data from Forbes.com

Barry Bonds Career Review Interactive Chart

Let's have a look back at Barry Bonds' career with the stats that made him famous,HR, SB,OBP, SLUG.

For novice users use the tabs at the top right of the chart to switch to BAR and/or LINE chart view, for a more traditional chart.

My personal favorite is, switch to BAR chart, and change the X or Y axis and see how his HR, OBP and SLUG just "pump" up in the early 90's then again the the early 2000's.



Stats from ESPN.com Player Card

Fantasy Top 40 Batters Interactive Chart with 2011 Projections

Below is a motion chart created to compare the stats for the projected top 40 fantasy hitters with their 2011 projections. The stats I used are for standard leagues (R, HR, RBI, AVG, SB). It's a very cool way to compare multiple players and multiple stats at the same time.

Let me know if you see any trends that stick out.

Option 1 recommended for beginners: Switch to "BAR CHART" or "LINE CHART"(by using the icon at the top right of the chart). From here you can either view all the players or select multiple players to compare. Then you can also change the axes for different trend comparisons.

Option 2 experts and those interested in comparing multiple stats at the same time: Use the default start state (with the bubbles) and change the the two x and the 2 y axes to the stats of your choice and play.
TIP: bottom left bad, top right good, big circles are better as well.



Stats from ESPN.com Player Card

MLB 2010 Attendance by State

When I created this, I wasn't sure it was going to be useful, but I found it to be very interesting because it shows the cluster of states with teams-which I've never seen before. It's also easy to see why other sports are a bigger deal in some parts of the country-those without MLB teams.

Overall, California with all its teams lead the league in total state attendance with over 13M.

As always feel free to draw your own conclusions.


Data from ESPN.com

Kobe Bryant vs. Dwayne Wade Career Stats Motion Chart

You decide who's better. Don't forget to adjust the axes for specific comparisons.
There's a lot of data in here may take a few moments to get used to, but play around with it.

From the looks of it, Kobe's the better scorer/shooter, but DWade's more dynamic in most of the other categories.

Note 1: Hover over each bubble at each year to see multiple stats for each player.
Note 2: Switch to "Line Chart" view for a more traditional stat by stat comparison.



Data from ESPN.com Player Card

MLB Salaries 1991-2011

OPTION 1: Switch to BAR CHART mode (upper right of chart) then change the color to "Unique" and select your team and play.

OPTION 2: Change the x axis to TIME for a more traditional linear motion chart. You should also change the color state from same color to "Unique".


Data from USA Today