Not that I care about baseball, but if I hacked MLB’s Twitter I’d probably report Derek Jeter (or Mariano Rivera) both admitted longtime PED use, and have subsequently renounced their HOF status. Just to BREAK BRAINS.

Your points are good, but I think lamenting that language can be an exclusionary force is almost similar to what I perceive to be the chief insecurity underlying Wilbon’s defiant tone: that advanced analytics can be, too. like you’ve been saying here, intellectual pursuit in objectivity is invaluable to dispelling…

The thing about analytics is that it treats players (mostly black, in the NBA and NFL) as fungible assets, not people; and GMs (mostly white, in all sports) become the central figure in sports organizations.

It’s great for eradicating racist hot-taking from the Nolan Nawrockis of the world. (Worth noting, though, that not every advanced stat eliminates human subjectivity, with Total QBR being one prominent example.) Unfortunately it’s not so great for getting more people of color in decision making positions on sports…

I’d say send them this writing sample, but you might be too smart for ESPN.

Well, fuck, wouldn’t that have been a great column for “Black ESPN” to run instead of “Us blacks don’t need no book learnin’s...we got them STREET SMARTS” bullshit.

The older system didn’t exactly encourage equality when the David Ecksteins of the world (and every sport has them) could get valuable spots on major league rosters for “hustle” and “grit” that, mysteriously, black/Latino/Polynesian players (depending on the sport) apparently lack.

What is most frustrating is that the intersection of race and analytics could be an interesting piece that contrasts the emerging equality attained through the older system with a white-washed technology fetish. Instead, we were treated to a “and Black people watch sports like this” piece.

So Theo Epstein is worth the total sum of the national debt then.

Everything about this is glorious and perfect.

Legendary call by Gary Cohen and Ron Darling dying in the background is the icing on the cake.

I DEMAND THE RETURN OF THE BARTOLO COLON-O-METER

Marcus Paige’s three-pointer

After witnessing something astounding like this, I can imagine your brain just sort of turns off and resorts to whatever phrase is easily accessible; I’ll allow it.

Terry Collins is 66 I’m sure he was pissed for about 5 seconds then stopped, then pissed again, then stopped then pissed again for about 5 minutes

Mets Pitchers offer sympathy:

“With the 29th pick in the 2016 NBA draft, Gregg Popovich personally selects Taurean Prince, Baylor.”

You could transport this whiteboard to any early-2000s garage rock band’s record label’s A&R department conference room.

“But what I do have are a very hot set of takes, takes I have acquired over a very long career. Takes that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you apologize now, that’ll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don’t, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will threaten…

TUCKER & BAGWELL