Category Archives: Sports

PICKING BASEBALL PLAYERS WHO HAVE A “GOOD FACE.”

PICKING BASEBALL PLAYERS WHO HAVE A “GOOD FACE.” MONEYBALL, Michael Lewis’s book about how Billy Beane of the Oakland Athletics had applied sabermetrics principles to baseball, was published in 2003, so that there is now some perspective about the predictions … Continue reading

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MONEYBALL COMES TO SOCCER.

MONEYBALL COMES TO SOCCER. Simon Kuper had an article in the Financial Times (February 6) about how European soccer clubs are paying spending much less money to buy players than they had in recent years. He argues that clubs are … Continue reading

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BASKETBALL COACHES—FOOTBALL STYLE AND SOCCER STYLE.

BASKETBALL COACHES—FOOTBALL STYLE AND SOCCER STYLE. In football, every play is planned after an interval for deliberation. Coaches now call most plays. In soccer, there is a continuous flow. A soccer coach has to prepare his players to react to … Continue reading

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TYRUS THOMAS—DEFENSE VERSUS OFFENSE.

TYRUS THOMAS—DEFENSE VERSUS OFFENSE. I am a lifelong Bulls fan. I can’t hold back from going out on a limb about their trading Tyrus Thomas. In any sport, it’s unusual to see a player with extraordinary physical talent being traded … Continue reading

Posted in Baseball, Basketball, Sports | 2 Comments

SABERMETRICS COMES TO SOCCER.

SABERMETRICS COMES TO SOCCER. I have posted several times, including here, about how statistical analysis has changed how we look at baseball (People who study this are called sabermatricians; Bill James pioneered the study; MONEYBALL by Michael Lewis was a … Continue reading

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AN ARGUMENT FOR MAKING REFEREE REVIEWS PUBLIC IN SOCCER.

AN ARGUMENT FOR MAKING REFEREE REVIEWS PUBLIC IN SOCCER. I have posted several times that referee reviews in baseball, basketball and football should be made public. Some of my arguments were that referee mistakes are part of the narrative of … Continue reading

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AN ARGUMENT FOR INSTANT REPLAY IN SOCCER.

AN ARGUMENT FOR INSTANT REPLAY IN SOCCER. I posted here three weeks ago about how baseball should immediately use instant replay for calls other than balls and strikes. Now, a major controversy has developed in soccer because a game which … Continue reading

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PREDICTION IS HARD.

PREDICTION IS HARD. About a year ago, I posted here about FiveThirtyEight, a political website which extends sabermetric statistical analysis (that is, statistical analysis of baseball) to politics. The moving spirit of FiveThirtyEight is Nate Silver, whose PECOTA system is … Continue reading

Posted in Baseball, Politics, Sports | 2 Comments

INSTANT REPLAY IMMEDIATELY (COMMENT).

INSTANT REPLAY IMMEDIATELY (COMMENT). I posted here on Jonah Keri’s suggestion that baseball get rid of all its umpires. Dylan commented on October 20 that baseball should have instant replay for calls other than balls and strikes. This column on … Continue reading

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THE NBA’S THREE SETS OF “RULES.”

THE NBA’S THREE SETS OF “RULES.” Refereeing basketball games is difficult enough, but the NBA makes it more difficult by having three different sets of “rules.” In addition to the rules that apply to over 90% of regular season games, … Continue reading

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