76ers @ Wolves 6:oo pm

The Wolves have a 15-16 record, but are only 8-10 at home. I guess the record could change if some of the bad bounces early in the season went the Wolves way. Tonight the Wolves face a tough Eastern Conference team in Philadelphia. They are a bit of a surprise with a 20-11 records and a bigger surprise (to me at least) is that Doug Collins is their coach and they havent completely flamed out. Thats probably a bit too harsh on Collins. He has a career .527 winning mark, but most of that can be traced to coaching Jordan and Pippen in Chicago in the 80's.

Looking at Philly's roster, they have a 'Wow, this guy is still around' player in Elton Brand and maybe Tony Battie (he hasnt played since Feb 2 though so he may be in a doghouse or something). The Wolves also catch a break because it looks like big man Spencer Hawes is still hurt. The way Pek! has been dominating lately, it could spell bad news for the visitors.

Happy Birthday–February 19

John Morrill (1855)
Dick Siebert (1912)
Hub Kittle (1917)
Russ Nixon (1935)
Dave Niehaus (1935)
Jackie Moore (1939)
Walt Jocketty (1951)
Dave Stewart (1957)
Keith Atherton (1959)
Alvaro Espinoza (1962)
Miguel Batista (1971)
Juan Diaz (1974)

Hub Kittle’s baseball career spanned 68 years.  In 1980, he became the oldest player to appear in organized baseball, pitching a perfect inning for AAA Springfield on August 27 at age 63½.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–February 19

The Game is About Scoring Points and Stopping the Other Team from Scoring Points

When it comes to quantifying what a player's contribution is to a team, baseball is king. With its discrete events, it is relatively speaking, pretty easy to determine, statistically, who is contributing the most to a team's victory. Football, not so much. Basketball is somewhere in between and I think a lot of fun to discuss. Where the rigidity of baseball (pitcher throws ball to batter) and football (ball is snapped to QB and five of eleven players on offense never touch the ball when it is live) dictates offensive flow, any player on offense can contribute at any time, depending on the circumstances.

There are a lot of numbers that I like to look at, but one of my favorite is ORtg and DRtg. ORtg is an estimation of the number of points a player (or a team) generates per 100 possessions.  Let's look at a couple of players from this season. I have added a "Difference" column, which is simply the difference betwen the ORtg and the DRtg.

Continue reading The Game is About Scoring Points and Stopping the Other Team from Scoring Points

Happy Birthday–February 18

Ray Ryan (1883)
George Mogridge (1889)
Sherry Smith (1891)
Jake Kline (1895)
Huck Betts (1897)
Joe Gordon (1915)
Herm Wehmeier (1927)
Frank House (1930)
Manny Mota (1938)
Dal Maxvill (1939)
Bob Miller (1939)
Jerry Morales (1949)
John Mayberry (1949)
Bruce Kison (1950)
Marc Hill (1952)
Rafael Ramirez (1958)
Kevin Tapani (1964)
John Valentin (1967)
Shawn Estes (1973)
Jamey Carroll (1974)
Chad Moeller (1975)

Ray Ryan was involved in minor league baseball for six decades.  He had one baseball card, a part of the T206 tobacco series.  This is the series that produced the famous Honus Wagner card.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–February 18

Twin Spin: Louis Armstrong & Johnny Cash + Ray Charles & Willie Nelson

As CH week winds down, I thought I'd post one last twin spin, a tribute to the three great foundations of American music - Jazz, Country, and the Blues. "Let's give it to them in black & white."

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMdz1ejFnp8

From The Johnny Cash Show, 28 October 1970.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caKsva_kojo

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Game 31 7:oo pm. Hey look! We play Houston again!

I dont have much to say about this because I am sick of seeing Houston. The other day, Wolves Radio play by play man Alan Horton tweeted some good Pek! stats

1st 11g of the year N.Pekovic played 4min total. Last 13g (MIN 7-6) he's averaging 29min 16pts 10rbs 62% FG with 3+ FTA/g. #twolves

Pek is shooting 61.3%, would rank 3rd in the #nba if qualified. But he's averaging 7 FGM/g in Feb, at that rate will qualify in 3gms.