Category Archives: Baseball

THE OLDEST FANTASY BASEBALL LEAGUE STARTS ITS 32ND SEASON. (COMMENT).

THE OLDEST FANTASY BASEBALL LEAGUE STARTS ITS 32ND SEASON (COMMENT). David Quemere commented on my post about our “rotisserie league”, which I claim is the oldest fantasy baseball league in the country. (In the early years, fantasy leagues were called … Continue reading

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WHEN ARE SUNK COSTS SUNK?

WHEN ARE SUNK COSTS SUNK? Although the article by Baliga and Ely presents its arguments as an exception to the long-established rule that it is rational to treat sunk costs as by-gones, I think it is easier to view the … Continue reading

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WHY SUNK COSTS SHOULD BE IGNORED.

WHY SUNK COSTS SHOULD BE IGNORED. Kids, you have probably encountered the the economic argument that it is a fallacy to take sunk costs into consideration in making a decision (“sunk costs” are defined in this wikipedia article as “retrospective … Continue reading

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MY FAVORITE HOAX.

MY FAVORITE HOAX. This hoax was sent me by a friend who is a very astute authority on baseball. I wish I had been taken in by it.

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TYLER DURDEN IS NOT A HOAX (COMMENT).

TYLER DURDEN IS NOT A HOAX (COMMENT). Dick Weisfelder and Nick picked up on the link in my post on rehypothecation to a post by Tyler Durden, whose picture on the blog looks like Brad Pitt. I completely missed that … Continue reading

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MONEYBALL AND PIG FARMING.

MONEYBALL AND PIG FARMING. Lindy Hinkleman, a pig farmer in Idaho, has just had his second success in three years in national fantasy baseball contests. He won a grand prize of $100,000 this year and over $240,000 in 2009. This … Continue reading

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ALBERT PUJOLS SHOWS LEADERSHIP.

ALBERT PUJOLS SHOWS LEADERSHIP. Over the years, some of the most violent criticism I have read in a newspaper results from a failure by an athlete to give an interview. The latest example followed an error in the ninth inning … Continue reading

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WAS THE RED SOX COLLAPSE A ONE IN 278 MILLION EVENT?

WAS THE RED SOX COLLAPSE A ONE IN 278 MILLION EVENT? The 278 million figure is fun to think about, and the events were dramatic. One home run by potentially the last batter in one of the games was by … Continue reading

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APOPHENIA AND SPORTS JOURNALISM.

APOPHENIA AND SPORTS JOURNALISM. In yesterday’s cartoon, the first character says: “A weighted random number generator just produced a new batch of numbers.” The other character replies: “Let’s use them to build narratives.” The caption at the bottom says: “ALL … Continue reading

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APOPHENIA—THE CARTOON.

APOPHENIA—THE CARTOON. I posted here on September 25 about apophenia, and I have since been encountering discussions of the phenomenon although they don’t use the new word. Nate Silver even linked to this cartoon which dramatizes the phenomenon. The site … Continue reading

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