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Archive for the ‘Sports’ Category

Does Moneyball explain baseball?

Thumbnail : Does <i>Moneyball</i> explain baseball?

The movie Moneyball, starring Brad Pitt, is now in cinemas. I read and thoroughly enjoyed Michael Lewis’s book, but haven’t had a chance to see the movie yet. But friends have asked what I think about the Moneyball premise – that is, the use of statistical analysis to improve the performance of sports teams – and here’s what I […]

Sympathy for the devil (LeBron)

Thumbnail : Sympathy for the devil (LeBron)

Congratulations to the Dallas Mavericks for winning the National Basketball Association finals last night. It was a riveting series, nearly every game a close one. This morning I woke to hear all the sports pundits saying that the Mavericks’ win over the Miami Heat showed the value of the collective over the individual, of the regular […]

Video of the Babe

The New York Times reports today on the discovery of rare film footage showing baseball great Babe Ruth in 1927. Found in a basement in Illinois, the film shows Ruth “in his prime and shot from close range, sitting atop a pony while wearing a child’s cowboy hat and muttering into a home movie camera.”  Ruth was the […]

Football and a nation of wusses

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The trend in American society in recent years towards risk-aversion and excessive safety-first concerns are undermining an American institution known for toughness: football. I was nearly knocked over by last week’s news that, for the first time in its history, the National Football League called off a game because of weather. A game in Philadelphia between the local […]

George Steinbrenner

George Steinbrenner will be forever known as the owner of the New York Yankees who restored the baseball team to greatness. After dominating baseball in the first half of the 20th century, the team became mediocre in the 1960s. Following Steinbrenner’s purchase of the team in 1973 for $10 million, the Yankees won seven World Series championships […]

The LeBron “Decision”

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Back from vacation in the hills of the Wild West, with temperature of 75 degrees and zero humidity (eat your heart out those of you sweltering on the East Coast!) and where I heard virtually no news. What did I miss? It seems like last week’s big issue was the LeBron James prime-time TV show […]

The team that never quits

(Video: Landon Donovan) At mid-day I joined a great roar – from the midtown bar I was in and seemingly across all of Manhattan – to rejoice as the US team in the World Cup scored its amazing goal in extra time to win Group C. I’m still buzzing about it.  Throughout the city (and from what I can tell, across […]

“Team America” goes to South Africa

(Hat tip: Marbury)

The human element in baseball

It was the perfect game – that wasn’t. Detroit Tigers’ pitcher Armando Galarraga was one out from “baseball immortality” – from joining only 20 pitchers in the history of the game that have thrown a perfect game (retiring all 27 batters). But the 27th batter was called safe by umpire Jim Joyce, in what was […]

“NYC Super Bowl”

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The National Football League owners have decided that the 2014 Super Bowl will be played in the Meadowlands of New Jersey, in the yet-to-be built stadium. The New York Daily News and the New York Post are excited. So, as a New Yorker and a Giants fan, I’m supposed to be too. But I’m not. […]

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