62nd Annual STS (2002-2003)
Finalists
Alex Kardon

NEW YORK
Alex Kardon, 17, of Rockville Centre, submitted a two-year project in behavioral and social sciences to the Intel Science Talent Search in which he examined the effect of pay raises and team success on the performance of professional baseball players. Alex used adjusted OPS+, a previously developed formula, to calculate a player's performance above or below league average and compared performance for two years before and two years after signing a new contract. To qualify for the study, a player must have had 250 at-bats in the four-year period and received a pay raise of at least thirty percent. His study also compared player performance with team performance. He believes his research shows that pay increases and team performance have no effect on a player's performance. Alex attends South Side High School where he plays improvisational jazz as first-chair alto saxophonist in the jazz band and helped design and test an electric car for Electrathon America. The son of Ronald and Marna Kardon, Alex runs a popular amateur NFL draft site on the Internet and published and sold a 2000 NFL draft guide. He hopes to attend Yale and pursue a career as a sports psychologist or agent.