Because I like the concept of Whiterose being the omniscient, omnipotent villain, I bought into the Trump thing. Everyone tries to ascribe various rationales for Trump’s behavior, but I think he really boils down to one simple, guiding force: people must think I’m the best. Everything else serves that simple idea,…

“but if he can recapture that kind of form”

Small sample size is the bugaboo of sports analytics. I think players (in all sports) can try too hard in big games, taking them out of the mind- (and skill-) set that made them successful, but by and large, you can take any 5 or 7 game stretch of games and show Barry Bonds or Babe Ruth underperforming.

Talk about looking like an idiot. The Suns have been bad under Watson during his entire year+ running the team (I mean, they have bad players who have played badly, so its a little hard to parse out Watson’s contributions to that badness), but they brought him back this year despite that. But 3 games in is suddenly…

But isn’t calling Pence out for wasting “taxpayer’s money” just using his own rhetoric against him to expose his hypocrisy? I completely understand your explanation (and was enlightened by it, so thank you), but isn’t it like calling George W. Bush a “draft dodger” or that idiot pro-life, pro-family guy from…

In the aftermath of Charlottesville, NPR had a number of interviews with a guy who was once a white supremacist but who now ran an organization that helped bring people out of that community (I’m pretty sure it was Christian Picciolini of Life After Hate). He provided a pretty compelling argument for giving Nazis a…

Baseball is great with the unlikely guys doing amazing things: (1) Mark Whiten (423 career RBI in 11 years) is tied for the records of 4 HRs and 12 RBI in a game; (2) a nondescript starting pitcher named Tony Cloninger going for 2 GS and 9 RBI in a game against the Giants in ‘66; (3) Bobo Holloman (one season career,…

One of the more important contributions to the world from the Sabrmetrics community is the realization that so much of baseball comes down to luck: the inconstancy of BABIP from season to season revealing how little control pitchers have after the ball leaves their hand; the non-existence of “clutch hitting”; the…

I’m assuming you are saying the Cardinals and Dodgers won American Association pennants and the Reds won a National Association one?

Yes, exactly. With the exception of NFL QB, there probably isn’t a bigger developmental step up in sports than the one from college basketball to the NBA. Even the greatest players have to rethink their game (mentally and physically) for the simple reason that what worked well against college competition simply…

Well, something good has come out of the player’s protests and Kaepernick’s martyrdom.

As with about 90% of the “political” issues in the US today, the people who have twisted protests about the documented and pervasive (alleged) mistreatment of people of color by police into something against patriotism fall into one of two categories: (1) idiots and (2) cynical political manipulators.

“Yeah, I mean Superman stopping that nuclear bomb looked cool and all, but, c’mon; it isn’t that amazing. He wasn’t going anywhere near as fast as the Flash can and we all know that nuclear bombs are waaaaay lighter today than when they originally came out. Yeah, sure; mad props to Supes for saving humanity and all,…

“I can’t get over how superheroic she looks in that above still.”

I am not sure if you’re being facetious or not. The “football = CTE” logic, while not unassailable, is supported by a lot of research from a variety of non-biased, reputable medical organizations. The “vaccines = autism” logic is supported by one faked study and years of anecdotal confirmation by emotional parents…

Those pictures aren’t high quality; maybe the Pistons have an inordinate number of very square shouldered fans who wear only red or blue t-shirts?

Organized youth sports in America and Europe has existed for maybe a 100 years (probably less). Certain pockets of the country have taken high school sports waaaaaaay too seriously for a long time, but that is really caused by inbreeding in those areas. And, sure; there’s always been horrible Little League and Pop…

I’m a 49er fan who hates the Yorks’ management of the team. I think Jed York is as bad a Tommy-boy owner as there’s been. While his comments are “brave” in the context of the NFL’s fucked-up self-interest on the issue of player protests, he’s hardly staking out controversial ground here (say, the way Gregg Popovich…

I have a smart friend who is a huge soccer fan. He thinks the USMNT is on track (despite recent setbacks) with its plan to build through the MLS. He points to the Sounders drawing 40K+ as evidence that MLS is on the right path and that it will be able to provide Serie A or Ligue 1 level competition within a decade.