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Sports
April 2, 2008
Bracketology's Battle of the Sexes
College-basketball fans have long noticed that the men's and women's NCAA tournaments tend to play out a little differently. While the men's tournament routinely serves up enough stunning upsets to fill a yearly remake of "One Shining Moment," the early rounds of the women's bracket tend to play out true to seed. (Of course, there are some serious exceptions to that rule.) But does that pattern persist as the tournament advances through the second weekend? Gelf investigates.
Sports
March 4, 2008
What's So Bad About Winning?
Imagine that you are the general manager of a Major League Baseball team and David Ortiz suddenly became available. All you have to do is pay his salary and you can pick up a player who is easily worth three wins over the course of a season without even putting on a baseball glove. And since you've already imagined this much, throw in the pipe dream that Ortiz has adopted a more athletic physique, and can now play left field for as many as 110 games a season. Unless you have absolutely no interest in baseball, you are well aware that I'm describing not Big Papi, but the readily available Barry Bonds, whose inability to land a suitor for his services is a pretty sure indicator that he is either the victim of collusion, or that major league teams hate winning games.
Full article » | by Jake Rake
Sports
February 15, 2008
What Is 'It Is What It Is'?
There were many bizarre quotes from Roger Clemens's and Brian McNamee's testimony before a congressional committee—"Mr. Clemens bled through his designer pants" and "Mr. Clemens, according to your account, Mr. McNamee injected your wife in your bedroom without your knowledge" were some of the better ones—but the one that has caused the most confusion is a line from McNamee's taped phone call with Clemens: "It is what it is."
Sports
February 5, 2008
Would The Catch By Any Other Name Be As Sweet?
When David Tyree brought down Eli Manning's pass with 75 seconds left in Super Bowl XLII, everyone and their mother (well, at least mine) recognized it as one of the most important plays in Super Bowl history. But when the game ended, the controversy began. Not because it wasn't a catch—every super-slow-motion replay showed that Tyree's helmet-aided, back-breaking, Harrison-humiliating grab was indeed a reception. But because no one could decide what to call it.
Sports
February 4, 2008
It's a Manning's World
If the last Giants drive of Super Bowl XLII was as shocking to you as, say, a racist Panda ad, then you were not alone. With just over three minutes left in the ball game, you could have gotten 40:1 odds on Eli Manning becoming the night's MVP. But after a series of impressive scrambles (and one amazing catch by David Tyree), Manning became the hero of the night, and shed much of his reputation for being soft and, well, not so good.
Sports
January 29, 2008
Rogerclemensreport.com: Another Uninspiring Defense
It's unclear who Roger Clemens and his agents are trying to convince of Clemens's anabolic innocence with their recently posted statistical analyses over at rogerclemensreport.com. What's pretty clear, though, is that they won't succeed. With 49 pages of convoluted notes and graphs, they've fired a fastball well over the heads of any casual fans who are open-minded enough to try to find a historical precedent for Clemens's late career revival. At the same time, though, the hurried report uses outdated stats (wins and losses, and ERA) that most sabermetricians would disdain.
Sports
December 18, 2007
The Curse of the Runner-Up
When the Bears lost to the Vikings on Monday Night Football to fall out of the playoff race, they were continuing in the mediocre tradition of Super Bowl losers. Not since 1972 has the team that lost the previous year's championship game come back to win it the next year. And not since the Bills of the early '90s has such a team even reached the Super Bowl. That's way worse than even an average team should do, let alone one of the sport's two best teams—and this curse of the runner-up holds true across all of the major professional sports. What is it about losing the championship game that dooms a team the following season?
Sports
December 17, 2007
Does It Ever Make Sense Not to Score a TD?
On Sunday, Brian Westbrook was hailed by his coach for not scoring in the win over Dallas. With just over two minutes remaining (and Dallas lacking a timeout), Westbrook broke free for an apparent touchdown that would have put the Eagles up 16-6. Instead, he took a knee at the one-foot line and the Eagles proceeded to run out the clock. Sure, it made for a good story on ESPN (and enraged several fantasy-football players). But was not scoring really a good idea?
Sports
November 17, 2007
Indictment Pleases Bonds Biographer
With Barry Bonds indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice, Gelf turned to Jeff Pearlman for some insight. Pearlman, Bonds's biographer, spoke to Gelf last year about the controversial slugger. He explains why the indictment brings him pleasure, and predicts the end of Bonds's career, in the interview after the jump.
Sports
November 15, 2007
Superman Dat Ho
In the most recent Sports Illustrated, there's a hilarious short article about 17-year-old rapper Soulja Boy's song "Crank That," which is played as a motivational anthem at stadia around the country. The song contains the phrase "Superman dat ho," which apparently has a lewd connotation that most teams' public-relations officials aren't aware of. According to the article, "It's widely known among younger Soulja Boy fans that Superman, in the context of the song, is slang for a sexual act that cannot be described on the pages of SI."
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