A famous painter once said, "You cannot show light without dark." Pretty basic point, but it applies here.
***SYRACUSE GOES DOWN***
I don't believe this is sour grapes, but Oklahoma didn't impress me that much. It looked like their offense was just 'pass it around until we can get it to Blake Griffin.' Effective last night, but how far will it take them. Griffin is impressive: extremely agile for a big guy. Syracuse looked like they were shooting a 10-inch ball at an 8-inch basket. Oklahoma was never under any pressure to get an offense in gear. If everyone stays, Syracuse should have a real powerhouse next year.
***CALHOUN STILL UNDER FIRE***
I understand that even if he personally did nothing wrong, he is still responsible for the whole program, but he made a good point. Nobody can keep up with all the changes in an already ponderous amount of rules in the 508-page NCAA rule book. Ya' gotta love the NCAA. This is the group that wanted to suspend Steve Alford of Indiana years ago, because he posed for a calendar that a sorority was putting out for charity. Neither he nor the sorority received any compensation for the calendar. His crime: he didn't ask for permission. Luckily, the NCAA relented when they heard that Bobby Knight was oiling up his favorite shotgun in preparation for the appeals hearing.
***JETER TO LEAD OFF THIS YEAR***
Girardi has decided to swap Jeter and Damon in the lineup to try and eliminate all the double plays Jeter is prone to hit into. Mathematically, that will eliminate 25% of his DPs right away and if Gardner is on base, Bret's steals should eliminate more. Now, if we can keep opposing hitters from hitting grounders past him, we may have a superstar again.
***BOOK REVIEW***
Picasner read Rob Neyer's book, "Baseball's Biggest Blunders." Some interesting things, but most of it was after-the-fact reporting based on all these new statistical formulas that purport to be able to convert standard stats into wins and losses. For example, player A gets traded from New York to Detroit for player B. Player A's stats earn him 5 Wins-Over-Replacement-Player (WORP), while player B earns only 3. New York loses the pennant by one game, therefore they would have won if they kept player A. 200+ pages of this: don't waste your time.
***A WORD ON THE NEW STATS***
People with no lives whatsoever are coming up with statistical formulas to try and put a number on every aspect of the game. Interesting, maybe, but really proving nothing. It does not account for the individual traits of ballplayers. For example, Nomar Garciaparra was considered an excellent defensive shortstop, but Picasner seems to recall that he tended to make an error at a crucial time in the game, at least against the Yankees. They also don't seem to account for how a player reacts to a new team and so forth. Let's just watch and enjoy the game. As Charlie Brown says to Lucy, "Tell your statistics to shut up!"
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