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Sports
November 25, 2006
Wide Wrong
Last week, an article in the New York Times pointed out that even at the highest level, kickers' performances on field goals vary widely from year to year. In fact, the author posited that NFL kickers should be valued not for their ever-changing field-goal percentage but for the length of their kickoffs, which remains relatively consistent throughout their careers.
Sports
November 22, 2006
Oh, Shit
As a sports headline, it was both confusing and evocative: "Injuries, suspension shit Tigers' strength." Were the Memphis Commercial-Appeal editors using "shit" as a verb, without the usual preposition "on," as per terse headline style? Or should we read "suspension shit" as a noun phrase, with the editors expressing their opinion on either the merits of the suspension or on the sheer shittiness of the suspension situation? Alas, we'll never know, for the shitty headline was one more thing: short-lived. Yet it lives on, after the jump.
Sports
November 20, 2006
ESPN's Dueling Banjos
Ohio State and Michigan played a football game on Saturday, and this game was really important in determining who will play for college football's national championship. Well, not really. The game—which ended in a 42-39 victory for the Buckeyes—may not have cleared anything up, as the close final score means that Michigan remains ranked at No. 2, making a rematch likely.
Sports
November 16, 2006
News Flash!
It's hard being a sports journalist. There are only so many different ways to cover a game before all the angles are played out. So the diligent folks over at the Birmingham News did a little digging to uncover a news nugget that you might not have heard about. The headline says it all: "Better team usually wins."
Sports
November 13, 2006
Doyel Hates the Haters
When SportsLine columnist Gregg Doyel gets hate mail, he gets Googling. In a childish, creepy prank called out by Deadspin, Doyel responded to angry letters last month with digs at his readers, based on info he gathered about them online. Gelf contacted a couple of his targets, who were unimpressed.
Sports
November 9, 2006
Tom Candiotti's Tall Tale
Last month, former pitcher Tom Candiotti told the San Francisco Chronicle a remarkable story about how he used his influence to help his fantasy team back when he was a pitcher for the Dodgers. He claimed that in order to bolster his fantasy numbers, he told a fib that launched a thousand plunkings of the widely disliked Jeff Kent, many of them by Dominican pitchers. Turns out, the story is too good to be true.
Sports
November 6, 2006
Be Conservative or Be Ridiculed
When Bill Parcells opted to go for a two-point conversion early in the second quarter of the Cowboys-Redskins game on Sunday, it marked the first time this year that a team has gone for two—instead of settling for a near-automatic, one-point kick— in the first half. And because the game—which the Cowboys lost—was tied until the final seconds, Parcells has been mocked mercilessly in the press for his decision that ended up costing his team a precious point. Yes, the choice was unusual. But was it wrong?
Sports
November 3, 2006
Dodging the Problem
If the recent, anybody-can-win-the-title years of Major League Baseball seem like a welcome break from the half-decade of Yankees dominance, consider that, according to the New York Times, "this current period has a long way to go to match the previous period in which a different team won each year. From 1978 through 1990, 12 different teams won the World Series. Those 12 were half of the major league population in those years." But it turns out the NYT needed to recheck its figures.
Sports
November 2, 2006
Did He Eat the Worm?
David Eckstein is a teetotaler. Well, not totally—he'll drink the sauce on special occasions, like when he wins a World Series. Consider it a new rule of sports: Win a title, and no-booze rules are drowned with the champagne and the tequila.
Sports
October 27, 2006
Real-Time Baseball Odds
One of the reasons televised poker became a hit was because it allowed viewers at home to see each player's probability of winning the hand, and how each new card dealt affected those odds. We won't see it in Fox's broadcast of tonight's World Series game, but baseball broadcasts could be similarly spiced up by judiciously showing each team's probability of winning—and how every important home run, strikeout, bunt, and stolen base affects those odds.
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