Because self-made men and the American dream are praised so heavily in the United States, we rarely give luck its due credit. It’s strange and unsettling to think that something is completely beyond our control. People reject this idea so much so that Voros McCracken, the pioneer of DIPS theory, received endless hate mail for suggesting that luck played a role in baseball. Posted late at night on a low traffic website, his theory that pitchers had little effect on allowing hits revolutionized the entire sport of baseball. He noticed that defense-independent pitching statistics (DIPS), like strikeouts, walks, and home runs, stats that don't involve a team’s defense, have an extremely high correlation from year to year. On the other hand, hits,