A sports blog by and for Midwest Sports Fans
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Armen Gilliam, a 13-year NBA vet perhaps best remembered as the best player on the great 1987 UNLV team that went 37–1 before losing to Indiana in the Final Four, died last night while “playing basketball at his local gym.” He was 47.
“RIP Armen ‘The Hammer’ Gilliam”—Yahoo!, Ball Don’t Lie
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I don’t really know what to say about this, other than what I already said on Twitter.
Note the spelling of Derek Jeter’s name not just in the subject line, but throughout. The worst part is that she spells his first name two different ways, so she even misspelled her misspelling!
Consider this Today’s Worst:
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Earlier today, I flippantly tweeted the following without thinking first:
Fact: No matter what Dennis Haysbert does for the rest of his life, he’ll always be President David Palmer.
Never before in my tweeting career have I ever been more swiftly met with resistance to a tweet than I was this one.
Quite obviously, the resistance came from the multitudes of people for whom seeing Dennis Haysbert immediately conjures up images and quotes not of President David Palmer from 24 but rather of Pedro Cerrano from Major League.
I then quickly posted a poll on Facebook, but it was correctly criticized as unfair based on the picture I used.
So let’s settle this urgently important debate once and for all, fair and square, right here at MSF.
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Best parts about this:
Enjoy:
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Dennis Rodman, always ahead of his time:
from Lockerz
Technically, his hands should be at his sides, but whatever.
If you want to see more pictures of athletes planking (and I know you do), click here.
via @ChicagoPlanking and @SarahSpain
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Maybe. Softball, along with baseball, won’t be part of the Olympic program in 2012 and 2016. But it is one of 8 sports under consideration for 2020. Sarah Spain has the story.
“Softball still has long road to 2020″—espnW
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In this week’s waiver wire watch, we provide six names you should be scouring your free agent lists for right now. Is “El Caballo” out there? He might be able to provide you with some pop. How about the new closing sensation in Philadelphia?
Take a look at the names and see who can help you position yourself for the stretch run.
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As I continue to delve into the 2011-12 college basketball season, I decided to take a break from previewing conferences and teams by embracing my inner nerd. After all, I did major in math in college, so it’s not much of a stretch. (As a side note, please don’t ask what I thought I would be able to do with that degree in the real world. According to my friends, it has earned me all-time tip calculator duty whenever we go out to eat.)
The idea of advanced metrics and analysis has gained most of its notoriety within the world of baseball. Sabermetrics pioneer Bill James has introduced baseball fans to stats like BABIP, VORP, WAR, and FIP to name a few, and Michael Lewis’ Moneyball helped the concepts gain more mainstream acclaim.
Similar ideas have existed in basketball since the late 1950s when North Carolina coach Frank McGuire utilized per possession metrics, which his successor, Dean Smith, frequently tracked during his illustrious career. Subsequently, guys like Dean Oliver (not the former Iowa guard) and John Hollinger have expanded on the concepts and created a lengthy list of metrics that go far beyond “normal” per game averages and basic shooting percentages. Ken Pomeroy and John Gasaway have also contributed to this movement, with the latter providing a terrific summary of “tempo-free” stats during his days at Big Ten Wonk.
While many of these stats are not widely available at major online media outlets, Pomeroy’s website provides them at both the team and individual level, along with an easy to interpret glossary of terms.
Using the previous season’s team metrics to preview a new year can be a bit challenging based on the roster turnover that is inherent in college basketball, but there is value in looking at some of the individual measures for returning players. Sure, a player’s stats are influenced by his teammates, but these metrics seek to evaluate his individual efficiency. This analysis can also unearth some players poised for breakout seasons.
There are far too many of these to tackle at once, so this time around I’ll focus on Offensive Rating (ORtg) and Usage Rate.
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What a fantastic Fourth of July weekend!
Beautiful weather, delicious food, awesome fireworks and, oh yeah that’s right…I experienced my first Twins game at Target Field!
Last week I had a set of expectations for this weekend’s adventure. So did Target Field give me what I wanted? Take a look!
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Pre-order NCAA Football 12 now and get “Five-Star Quarterback” Free – Only at Best Buy®
With the NFL still locked out, the NBA just entering what could be a prolonged dark period, and baseball still two months away from the stretch run, there is room in the sports landscape to peek at the upcoming college football season.
And no conference will be more compelling in 2011 than the Big Ten. Here are just a few of the most prominent reasons why:
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There are few things in life I enjoy more than proactively seeking out new music far away from the mainstream.
There is so much of it out there, created by so many off-the-radar musicians who are deserving of more recognition than they get, and I am always blown away by how many songs I can add to my regular rotation with just a weekend of patient but thoroughly enjoyable “work”.
Last April I posted a playlist entitled 17 Essential New Songs for Spring and now it is time to share this year’s playlist, officially titled Indie Christmas in July 2011 (name explained below), which features 18 terrific tunes, a nice balance of genres, and more than a few songs with truly spectacular videos.
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Washington’s Tyler Farrar took Stage 3 of the Tour de France yesterday, making him the first American to win a Tour stage on Independence Day. Neither Lance Armstrong nor Greg Lemond ever took a stage on July 4. (The list of French riders who have won stages on Bastille Day is a bit longer.)
In the overall standings Farrar is 169th, 6:26 behind leader Thor Hushovd of Norway, Farrar’s Garmin-Cervelo teammate. The top American overall after 3 stages is George Hincapie, who is in 13th place but is only 4 seconds behind Hushovd.
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My friend’s father once spent an afternoon explaining to me the Black Swan theory, and how it relates to sports. Surprisingly, it has little to do with Natalie Portman and much more to do with Roger Maris.
Maris was a decent hitter, he explained, but never a great one and certainly not the person you would peg for an all-time power-hitting season. His 61 homers in 1961 was an aberration in the same way Brady Anderson hit 50 homers in 1996 or even Barry Bonds hit 73 in 2001. Those home run totals were so out of whack that they have almost nothing to do with the player’s past or future performance.
Think of it this way: if you see a black swan swimming amidst a flock of white swans, does that mean that there are more black swans on the way? Or is he the only one of his kind?
Deep stuff.
With that brain buster in mind, I wanted to take a look at some MLB players who are having black swan seasons either heading into free agency or right after earning a big contract.
Should MLB executives pay the guys who are about to hit the open market based on how they have done in the past, or how they will do in the future, or a blend of both? And which guys are rewarding or punishing the GMs who paid them the big bucks last winter?
