I hate to do another Cup where I'm just excited about a day off, but when they come, I really can't think of anything else.
33 thoughts on “January 21, 2014: Predictability”
GW reaches 20 in the RPI after Creighton (who GW defeated earlier) destroyed Villanova on the road. Then, news that the second-highest scorer broke his foot with 12 seconds left in our last game, and will miss 6-8 weeks. Ugh. Why can't they ever have nice things?!
(On the bright side, I get to go to their game on Saturday!)
NDSU was up to 25 earlier, but with a conference loss on the record has fallen to 49th.
The Chain of Booklovers didn’t constitute an exhaustive effort to transport the library collection, which includes more than 4 million books, the remainder of which will be moved by truck later. It was, however, a fairly impressive symbolic act
*points to the last paragraph*
[EDIT] *then points to the LTE above*
waz just a lame joak.
I thought exactly the same thing, then I read the article.
I still considered making the same joak, but I'd come to the end of my attention span and I wandered off after a snowflake.
I figured it was, but eh
Manchester United will be without Vidic (red card) and maybe Rooney and van Persie (health) for tomorrow's second leg of the League Cup semifinal. I'm almost allowing myself to have hope.
[F]or the coming Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, the Norwegian [curling] team is back, and so are their pants.
Without a doubt, this article is the best thing I've read all day.
They couldn't even make the pattern line up at the seams at that price?
Laaaaaaaaame.
Sounds like Andrew Albers is heading to Korea to pitch. Good for him!
Mike Berardino @MikeBerardino
Agent Blake Corosky wouldn't comment on tentative terms, but I'm told Albers would sign for 1 year at somewhere north of $500,000. #mntwins
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Keep in mind that until 2013, Albers had never made more than $25,000 in any single season. Former #Padres 10th-rounder in 2008.
I think that's just business. I'm sure there's a ton of data out there for how people fill out their brackets, so they're going to have a good idea what the odds of having to pay out are. Even if they do have to pay out, $25M/year is about what it costs for 3 minutes of Super Bowl ad time, and by running this contest, Quicken is potentially going to increase their visibility more than 3 minutes of Super Bowl ads would get them. Plus the timing is right for them with March Madness coming just before tax time.
Well, if a poor person said he was trying to give away a billion dollars, I guess I'd call him crazy too.
Except for bears -- bears will kill you.
now you're just trying to get DG all riled up.
Thinking about the MLB replay rule. As I understand it, each team gets one challenge until the seventh, at which point the umpires are in control.
So here's the scenario. It's the bottom of the sixth. The Yankees are in the field and their pitcher suddenly gets into trouble. Girardi wants to make a pitching change, but things happened so fast he doesn't have a reliever ready. So, he makes a completely bogus challenge, for example, challenging whether a fly ball was caught when it bounced fifteen feet in front of the outfielder or something. He has no chance of winning the challenge, but in the time it takes for him to go out to the umpires and explain the challenge, and the time it takes for the umpires to get word to the people doing the review and get word back, his reliever is all warmed up and ready to go.
It won't win him a sportsmanship award, but Girardi has never seemed to be too concerned about that. I could see him possibly getting fined after the fact, but is there anything in the rule that keeps him from doing it?
Managers already find plenty of BS ways of wasting time for relief pitchers to warm up. I don't see it as a big issue.
First, I'm sure a general sportsmanship rule covers it.
Second, I absolutely hope it happens, shows another problem with team-control of challenges, and leads eventually to umpire control throughout the game.
No, that would slow the game way down. How many times are there really close plays? How does the umpire decide if it is important enough to review? If there are 2 outs and no one on base in a game where one team is leading by five runs, do you stop to review a bang-bang play at first base or whether a ball was trapped in the outfield? If it were left up to the umps, I think they would be obligated to review pretty much every play that could possibly be overturned.
5th man, not on the field, decides. Quick reviews. Doesn't have to be like the NFL where each review takes 5 minutes. But that's what you get when you have challenges.
And why challenges? If it's about getting calls right, then let's get 'em right. Why only get some of them right when a team chooses, and why take that right away at some point, or if they fail, etc.? That's not about correct calls, which is what replays should be about.
Plus the Yankees would have Brian McCann to police Giraldi, making sure he manages "the right way."
GW reaches 20 in the RPI after Creighton (who GW defeated earlier) destroyed Villanova on the road. Then, news that the second-highest scorer broke his foot with 12 seconds left in our last game, and will miss 6-8 weeks. Ugh. Why can't they ever have nice things?!
(On the bright side, I get to go to their game on Saturday!)
NDSU was up to 25 earlier, but with a conference loss on the record has fallen to 49th.
Why the Super Bowl will never match a good Game 7.
One of many reasons. But yeah.
I just read that Joe Mauer says he wants to be a carpenter after he retires. Somehow, that makes sense.
I couldn't decide between:
Talking retirement already, eh? Always thinking one step ahead. Like a carpenter who builds steps.
or
A simple carpenter from
BethlehemSt. Paul, eh?"Truly I tell you," he continued, "no prophet is accepted in his hometown."
Verily.
Latvians form a human chain to transport books betwixt libraries (1.2 miles apart). Awesome that they got so many people (~14,000) to turn out for this.
wouldn't it have been cheaper to rent a truck?
*points to the last paragraph*
[EDIT] *then points to the LTE above*
waz just a lame joak.
I thought exactly the same thing, then I read the article.
I still considered making the same joak, but I'd come to the end of my attention span and I wandered off after a snowflake.
I figured it was, but eh
Manchester United will be without Vidic (red card) and maybe Rooney and van Persie (health) for tomorrow's second leg of the League Cup semifinal. I'm almost allowing myself to have hope.
Without a doubt, this article is the best thing I've read all day.
How does one go about procuring a pair of these?
$110 bucks here
They couldn't even make the pattern line up at the seams at that price?
Laaaaaaaaame.
Sounds like Andrew Albers is heading to Korea to pitch. Good for him!
--
When you are a poor person, you get called crazy. When you are rich, you are called eccentric. File this under eccentric.
Warren Buffet and Dan Gilbert are trying to give away a Billion dollars
I think that's just business. I'm sure there's a ton of data out there for how people fill out their brackets, so they're going to have a good idea what the odds of having to pay out are. Even if they do have to pay out, $25M/year is about what it costs for 3 minutes of Super Bowl ad time, and by running this contest, Quicken is potentially going to increase their visibility more than 3 minutes of Super Bowl ads would get them. Plus the timing is right for them with March Madness coming just before tax time.
Well, if a poor person said he was trying to give away a billion dollars, I guess I'd call him crazy too.
Except for bears -- bears will kill you.
now you're just trying to get DG all riled up.
Thinking about the MLB replay rule. As I understand it, each team gets one challenge until the seventh, at which point the umpires are in control.
So here's the scenario. It's the bottom of the sixth. The Yankees are in the field and their pitcher suddenly gets into trouble. Girardi wants to make a pitching change, but things happened so fast he doesn't have a reliever ready. So, he makes a completely bogus challenge, for example, challenging whether a fly ball was caught when it bounced fifteen feet in front of the outfielder or something. He has no chance of winning the challenge, but in the time it takes for him to go out to the umpires and explain the challenge, and the time it takes for the umpires to get word to the people doing the review and get word back, his reliever is all warmed up and ready to go.
It won't win him a sportsmanship award, but Girardi has never seemed to be too concerned about that. I could see him possibly getting fined after the fact, but is there anything in the rule that keeps him from doing it?
Managers already find plenty of BS ways of wasting time for relief pitchers to warm up. I don't see it as a big issue.
First, I'm sure a general sportsmanship rule covers it.
Second, I absolutely hope it happens, shows another problem with team-control of challenges, and leads eventually to umpire control throughout the game.
No, that would slow the game way down. How many times are there really close plays? How does the umpire decide if it is important enough to review? If there are 2 outs and no one on base in a game where one team is leading by five runs, do you stop to review a bang-bang play at first base or whether a ball was trapped in the outfield? If it were left up to the umps, I think they would be obligated to review pretty much every play that could possibly be overturned.
5th man, not on the field, decides. Quick reviews. Doesn't have to be like the NFL where each review takes 5 minutes. But that's what you get when you have challenges.
And why challenges? If it's about getting calls right, then let's get 'em right. Why only get some of them right when a team chooses, and why take that right away at some point, or if they fail, etc.? That's not about correct calls, which is what replays should be about.
Plus the Yankees would have Brian McCann to police Giraldi, making sure he manages "the right way."
Nicely done.