Recent Comments by jdaverin

Stink-o de Marcho

re: tiebreakers i spent a good amount of time figuring these out before, because it was driving me crazy, too. the first tiebreaker is indeed head-to-head, but it's among all the teams tied and only counting the games played between them. thus, with three 1-2 teams in the division, all of the teams were 1-1 against the other teams in the tie, so it went to the next tiebreaker. which is runs allowed/defensive inning against the teams in the tie. japan: 5 runs in 17 2/3 innings = 0.283 runs/inning u.s.: 5 runs in 17 innings = 0.294 runs/inning mexico: 7 runs in 18 innings = 0.389 runs/inning so it was pretty close, in the end. i will say that i have been very impressed with the teams in the wbc, in general. i agree that it would be nice to try it in november next time.

posted by jdaverin at 12:55 PM on March 17, 2006

Two Vikings claim discrimination.

i don't know much about the case, but it seems to me that the defending attorneys are doing anything they can to avoid trial, which, in the case of embarassing actions involving public figures, is among the least surprising things i've ever heard. i try not to get too into racism discussions because they usually don't end well, but affirmative action was never intended to confer special advantage, but rather to mitigate special disadvantage. it doesn't really fall under the "reverse racism" category as cleanly as people like to pretend. and the ferrari example is viciously flawed. it's one thing to get pulled over driving a flashy car. it's another if you're driving the same speed as all the other drivers and you are constantly getting pulled over and ticketed because of your skin color.

posted by jdaverin at 03:42 PM on March 02, 2006