- 04:43 PM
- 05/17/08
Some Athletes’ Genes Help Outwit Doping Test. Studies suggest that about 2/3 of Asian men and nearly 10 percent of Caucasians lack both copies of a gene used to convert the testosterone into a form that dissolves in urine, calling into question the efficacy of certain drug tests.
posted on May 1, 2008 - Go to the detail view for this result
Lenny Dykstra, Financial Planner to the Stars? The fascinating post-baseball career of a man called Nails.
posted on Mar 25, 2008 - Go to the detail view for this result
BBWAA Admits Online Writers. The Baseball Writers' Association of America (already in the news this week) votes to accept into its ranks 16 online writers (most of whom previously wrote for "traditional media"); Neyer, Law snubbed; Peter Abraham, Rob Neyer and various other luminaries drop by the comments section here for some good back-and-forth.
posted on Dec 7, 2007 - Go to the detail view for this result
Baseball GMs Vote in Favor of Instant Replay. In a move sure to make at least one former SportsFilter member roll over in his grave/production booth, baseball GMs have voted to propose that MLB adopt instant replay for disputed home run calls.
posted on Nov 6, 2007 - Go to the detail view for this result
The Kick Is Up and It’s ... A Career Killer. Michael Lewis explores the job of the NFL kicker (registration or Bugmenot req'd.):
A kicker in the N.F.L. can be one of two things: the bland technocrat who does what he's assigned to do but who, even when he's exceptionally good, must accept that the coach and the team will be credited for the victory. Or he can be the little choke artist who is very nearly entirely responsible for the loss. For a kicker in the N.F.L., . . . there is no upside.
posted on Oct 29, 2007 - Go to the detail view for this result
Rockies Vote Playoff Share for Coolbaugh Adding to the good karma surrounding the team, the Colorado Rockies' players have voted for a share of their playoff earnings to be contributed to the widow of deceased minor league coach Mike Coolbaugh, killed earlier this year by a batted ball.
posted on Oct 4, 2007 - Go to the detail view for this result
Irrational Panic. It's like 1978 all over again . . . only not really at all (except to perhaps the special species of irrational, self-loathing, prepare-for-the-worst Red Sox fan typified by those upbeat kids at Boston Dirt Dogs).
posted on Sep 21, 2007 - Go to the detail view for this result
Rawlings Announces All-Time Gold Glove Team Previously discussed (in the voting stage) here.
posted on Aug 22, 2007 - Go to the detail view for this result
Grassroots campaigns, ballot stuffing, and 100,000 lost votes: The curious case of this year's NHL's All-Star voting. (Follow-up to this thread.)
posted on Jan 20, 2007 - Go to the detail view for this result
The L.A. Times runs a two-part investigative report and critique of the anti-doping regime: The worldwide sports anti-doping program, created to fight performance-enhancing drug use in international athletics, imposes severe punishments for accidental or technical infractions, relies at times on disputed scientific evidence and resists outside scrutiny.
posted on Dec 15, 2006 - Go to the detail view for this result
Phillies' Howard wins NL MVP, receives 20 first-place votes to runner-up Pujols' 12. BBWAA digs the long ball.
posted on Nov 20, 2006 - Go to the detail view for this result
Red Sox implosion: Not as much fun as a Yankees breakdown would be. But it's a lot of fun. (From King Kaufman at Salon -- Just click through the damn ad!)
posted on Aug 31, 2006 - Go to the detail view for this result
Pluto Sent Down to Minors: MLB.com gets its Onion on.
posted on Aug 24, 2006 - Go to the detail view for this result
Interesting article from Michael "Moneyball" Lewis about Texas Tech's football coach Mike Leach. "Leach remains on the outside; like all innovators in sports, he finds himself in an uncertain social position. He has committed a faux pas: he has suggested by his methods that there is more going on out there on the (unlevel) field of play than his competitors realize, which reflects badly on them." (NYT Reg. Req'd.)
posted on Dec 4, 2005 - Go to the detail view for this result
Leo Mazzone is heading to the Baltimore Orioles. Looks like starting in 2006 we may finally get to see whether Mazzone's greatness as a coach transcends a particular team and system and whether the Braves can keep their ridiculous streak of division titles alive with the Cox-Mazzone-Schuerholz triumvirate being reduced to a duo.
posted on Oct 21, 2005 - Go to the detail view for this result
Baseball Prospectus is making all is content freely available until next Wednesday. There's some great stuff in there for the baseball stat-head types, as well as some good trade rumors columns and other more general interest stuff. Most of the content is typically subscription only.
posted on Jul 29, 2005 - Go to the detail view for this result
Whizz Kid Vikings RB (and league substance abuse policy violator) Onterrio Smith caught in airport with the Whizzinator, a device used to foil drug tests that "includes a prosthetic penis attached to a jockstrap and plastic bag." But he was transporting it for his cousin, so we're all cool.
posted on May 11, 2005 - Go to the detail view for this result
Interview with Malcolm Gladwell regarding the applicability of ideas in his book Blink to the world of sports. Some interesting thoughts regarding the Super Bowl, Moneyball and Isiah Thomas and his Warren Harding problem.
posted on Feb 3, 2005 - Go to the detail view for this result
Masks!!! Nike unveils new masks ad campaign and ESPN Page 3 (to which I will link despite my general objection to the strange obession with the sports/pop culture mash-up) runs a quiz. I got 5 out of 6 -- how about you?
posted on Jan 21, 2005 - Go to the detail view for this result
TV Commentator Awards from Dr. Z Some may say this is just a crotchety old guy playing the part, but I appreciate his calling out the BS and shortcomings of many announcing teams and some of the negative trends (talking over the action, hyping superstars/superteams, etc.) in NFL broadcasting.
posted on Jan 17, 2005 - Go to the detail view for this result
Beltran to the Astros. Dotel goes to the A's, with prospects (from the A's and Astros) to the Royals. Interesting development for the NL Central -- I thought for sure Beltran would end up in the AL East or NL West.
posted on Jun 24, 2004 - Go to the detail view for this result
Pretty interesting take-down of SportsCenter from Slate.
"It's strange that ESPN added Dream Job to its lineup since they already have a show in which aspirants compete, with an irritating surfeit of eagerness and theatrical sarcasm, to capture the singular vibe of Dan and Keith. It's called SportsCenter."
posted on Apr 1, 2004 - Go to the detail view for this result
Joe Torre backs up Grady Little . . . in other news, Bugs Bunny calls Elmer Fudd a formidable hunter and Johnnie Cochran issues a press release stating "I am resigned to my fate of facing Lionel Hutz on the other side of the aisle for the rest of my legal career." Brer Rabbit was unavailable for comment on account of being thrown into a briar patch.
posted on Oct 21, 2003 - Go to the detail view for this result
Bob Costas proposes a new playoff system for baseball (sorry, registration required), suggesting that there should be more incentives to teams to make the push to win their divisions instead of settling for the wild card. His system (which he acknowledges is just a tweak of someone else's proposal) basically works like this -- the top two teams that are not division winners in each league are wild cards that play in a best of three series, with the winner to play the division champ with the best record in the next round. In that round, the wild card team still standing plays a best of 7 with the top divisional winner (while the other divisional winners play each other in a best of 7), but 5 of 7 games (games 1-3, 6 and 7) are played at the leading divisional winner's home (whereas for the other divisional series, it's the classic 4 home games for the team with the better record). And the season would have to be shortened by a week to allow for the expanded playoffs.
The motivating factor behind this, as mentioned above, is to create a greater disincentive to finish as a wild card team. In this respect, it would be more like the NFL system, whereby the top teams are rewarded for finishing at the top by getting a bye and it is very difficult for wild cards to make it to the Super Bowl.
posted on Sep 22, 2003 - Go to the detail view for this result
Joe Morgan says that wins are more important than ERA for a pitcher in determining the Cy Young award. While I would certainly agree that wins should be factored into the equation for starting pitchers, I think the emphasis he places on them is misguided. See also his chat wrap for his attempts to explain this further (in his answer to the first question and in the last paragraph).
It is interesting (and has been commented on a lot post-Moneyball) how past players typically put emphasis on things that statistical analysis suggests are insignificant (e.g., clutch hitting). Earlier in the season, on Baseball Tonight, when asked which of the game's young shortstops he would take if starting a team, Harold Reynolds said he would take Jeter over A-Rod because Jeter is a "character guy" and a "proven winner." Peter Gammons intimated that not only would he take A-Rod over Jeter, he would take Edgar Renteria over Jeter. Ouch.
posted on Aug 29, 2003 - Go to the detail view for this result