EVIL~! alkeiper

And guys, if the Super Bowl threads get hairy at times, try to keep your heads.

Yes. We'll have a separate thread for the game itself (someone else will need to start it). There also might be a game chatter thread, if someone wants to start one. I doubt I'll be at my computer for the game.

Hah. The Marlins won't sign anybody under 30, apparently.

Not to judge who was or wasn't on the juice, but you have to love a guy who will pick a time when steroid use is in the news to drop a book outing his former teammates. Books that expose the inner workings of an MLB clubhouse, such as Moneyball and Jim Bouton's Ball Four, tend to inspire outrage from those on the inside. If Jose Canseco had any chance whatsoever at the Hall, this book kills it.

San Diego hosted a Super Bowl a couple of years ago (Tampa/Oakland) and the NFL was very displeased with the stadium's maintenance, remarking that they would never come back to San Diego in that condition. That's why the city wants to renovate/rebuild the stadium, so that the Super Bowl could come back there. Riiiight. The NFL would NEVER say something just so they could convince a city to give them a big pile of cash to renovate/build another stadium.

Start with my TSM columns. Failing that... www.baseball-reference.com If you need any statistic throughout history, this is the place to go. Everything's cross-linked, and its a lot of fun to browse. Want to view the top 50 home run hitters in Chicago Cubs history? It's there. www.baseballthinkfactory.org The leading baseball blog/message board, for the thinking fan. http://www.thehardballtimes.com/ One of the best amateur analysis sites on the internet. They do create a lot of historical articles. all-baseball.com Another terrific blog site, hosting ten of the best. http://www.all-baseball.com/richbeat/archives/016946.html For an introduction to the work of Bill James, check out Richard Lederer's review of his annual Abstracts.

In all seriousness, if you find yourself truly stumped by an MLB question, feel free to drop me a line. Really, baseball record-keeping is not that complicated. The pitcher faces the batter, and the result is recorded for each. A hit, an out, assist for the fielder, etc. There's really not much more recorded than there is for the NFL, when you'll record who ran the ball, who tackled the ballcarrier, how many yards he gained, and so on. The difference is that baseball analysts have learned to refine that raw information into something informative and useful. I do not think a massive understanding of statistics is necessary for the enjoyment of the game.

http://bigleaguers.yahoo.com/mlbpa/players...r&type=Pitching Best I could find was Carlos Baerga not striking out in ten at bats, with six hits. I am sure someone's done better though.

Eight palyers (Dave Winfield, Jim Rice, Ron Kittle, Dave Kingman, Tim Wallach, Cesar Cedeno, Joel Youngblood, Mike Marhsall) all each hit a homerun on June 13, 1984 when there was a full moon. DUH!!! Damnit Bored. I spent five minutes finding that full moon before I scrolled down and saw you answered it.

The Magglio Ordonez deal is atrociously bad, and would be even if there were no health concerns.

Fuck the reporters who keep bashing Jacksonville. After surviving an ice storm that knocked out power for five days, I would love to go to a warm weather city this time of year. What the hell is it with a city not being cut out for the Super Bowl. Is anything really required outside of a football stadium?

It's not about not giving the Eagles any credit. Its about the fact that the Eagles are playing a team that finished 14-2, and just beat two of the dominant teams in the NFL, rather easily. I think the Eagles have a good chance, and I hope they win. But any rational analysis is going to see the Patriots as the better team.

Personally, I don't have any problem whatsoever with fans picking the starters. Sure they cough up an embarassing choice now and then, but a group of coaches or sportswriters would produce the same problems. At least this way, the players are the ones the fans want to see.

......Your kidding, right? ...... Seriously, do you even watch McGrady play?I I'm sure McGrady LOVES losing, just as long as he can drop 30 points a game. AI is not a selfish player. Like I said earlier in the thread, I've never heard a teammate say a bad word about him. He DOES pass the ball regularly, and he plays harder than 95% of the players in the NBA. He busts his ass for a sub-.500 club. How exactly is he selfish? He takes shots because he's the only person with the ability to take the shots that he does. I don't have the statistics, but I'd be willing to bet that the Sixers have the fewest number of shot clock violations in the NBA. As for McGrady, he is one of the least turnover prone players in the NBA. Let's compare two players, say, McGrady and Steve Nash. Nash has played 45 games, and McGrady's played 44. Nash has turned the ball over 143 times. Now, that number seems like alot, but Nash also carries the ball alot. So we use a statistic called turnover ratio. We take a player's turnovers, assists, field goal attempts, and free throw attempts to estimate how many times a player handled the ball. Nash's Turnover Ratio is 11.9, a decent ratio. McGrady made less turnovers, just 122. But when he look at turnover ratio, McGrady clocks in at 8.4, an excellent mark. So McGrady makes turnovers 40% less of the time than does Steve Nash.

He hasn't, but no one's praising his leadership skills. And without McGrady, the Rockets are toast. The difference is the Suns' teammates are starting higher. A sportswriter cliche that doesn't exist. Are basketball skills really so fickle that they variate by a player's mere presence? Players can work well together, but that doesn't mean the player himself has gotten better. Nonsense. Kobe is regarded as the same type of player, and he won three championships. And for the record, I do not believe McGrady is a selfish player. There are either two responses to this. One, plenty of teams have won without guys like Steve Nash. Or, the teams that won DID have guys like Steve Nash, would would mean that guys like Steve Nash are of fair quantity. I think the latest championships have been more due to dominant players like Tim Duncan and Shaquille O'Neal. I'm sure if you replaced Bryant with McGrady on the Lakers, McGrady would have three rings right now. He hasn't won because he's been dealt utterly bad teams. His teammates for most of his career were guys like Mike Miller and Darrell Armstrong. They don't tend to bring out the best in anyone. Give McGrady a good team, and he will win. I think Dwayne Wade has a serious argument for the top spot, and Iverson, Baron Davis, and Jason Kidd are deserving of consideration. What shooting guards are better than McGrady, besides Lebron James and MAYBE Kobe Bryant? McGrady's at least top three at shooting guard right now. I don't see how the positional argument really separates the two players.

Volkoff's involvement with WWE goes well beyond the evil Russian gimmick. He was one of the Mongols, who held the tag titles back in the last 60s.

And how many championships did Nash's leadership bring to the Dallas Mavericks? His departure didn't exactly hurt the Mavs, did it? I am not bashing Nash as a player, but there is more to the Suns' success than "leadership." Is Nash a better passer? Sure. You said all McGrady can do is score. First off, scoring is the OBJECT of the game. Second, McGrady does more than score. He had far more rebounds and blocks than Nash. Nash has never been regarded as even a good defender. If you're selecting an All-Star roster, would you rather have the passer, or the guy who can score, and contribute on defense. I know people will cry that McGrady's a "me first" offensive player, but the East is putting their five best players on the court, and I want someone on the team who can stop them. The Suns have the better record, but let's face it. Nash benefits from having Shawn Marion and Amare Stoudamire as teammates. McGrady has Yao Ming, and role players. And McGrady's got a track record. Even if I were to accept Nash is having a better season, half a season does not make a player a sure-fire All Star. Nash lost out to McGrady and Kobe Bryant. With Bryant's injury, he'll likely start. That's hardly a travesty of Bobby Abreu-esqe proportions.

One I haven't seen mentioned. Rickey Steamboat returns as Dustin Rhodes' mystery partner versus Anderson and Zbyszko, at a Clash of the Champions in 1991.

Ossie visited my school as well. He was cool.

http://espn.go.com/classic/obit/s/2005/0204/1984439.html RIP for one of the defining sports figures of the 20th century. A class guy, and a very underrated boxer.

Agreed. I've never seen any teammate bitch about Iverson. He's a heck of a player.

Perhaps a certain sportswriter wouldn't mind making $10 an hour. Something that's been bugging me. ESPN won't stop talking about how bad the NHL has gotten, and how their replacement programming gets higher ratings. Meanwhile, ESPN's crappy coverage was in part responsible for the NHL's drop in popularity.

The best method is drafting and developing. Most players enter MLB through the amateur draft. Teams can gain and lose picks depending on what happens with free agency. It is common for teams to switch associates, particularly in the lower levels. Usually they mean everything. Minor league statistics are every bit as useful as major league statistics when it comes to predictive value. David Aardsma, Eddy Martinez-Esteve, Nate Schierholtz, Markin Valdez, Craig Whitaker, among others. Harley and Mik answered this. Oakland was considered for the top spot, and the top four are interchangeable, really.

I know Nash is having a great year and all, but its silly to suggest he's a better player than Tracy McGrady right now.

Well, Kobe IS a Philly native. Too bad the Philly fans hate him.