Today, draft day, is, we trust, a busy day at the NFL Network. No time for lots of things. But no time for math?
Leonard Cooper, Jeopardy Folk Hero, Still Could Have Lost When He…
Everyone is rightly lauding Leonard Cooper, the winner of the Jeopardy Teen Tournament, as America's coolest high schooler. When Final Jeopardy came around, Leonard didn't know the answer. So he wrote something much better.
H, Y, and Z Are Your Money Letters: How To Beat Scrabble's Flawed…
This week the director of research at Google, a fellow named Peter Norvig, published on his blog the results of a fascinating deep-dive into the English language. If you're at all interested in letter frequency or word frequency, you owe it to yourself to at least skim Norvig's post. Essentially the researcher who in…
Who Was On The Ballots Of The Hall Of Fame Voters Refusing To Go…
For just the second time, the Baseball Writers' Association of America has given its voters the option of having their Hall of Fame ballots made public. Of the 569 voters who cast ballots, only 108 chose to reveal who they voted for. (Of course, many more discussed their selections in their own columns—194 of them,
Rajon Rondo Taught Math To Some High-School Kids Like Only He Could
On Tuesday, Rajon Rondo stopped by Jeremiah E. Burke High School in Dorchester, Mass., to tour the school, meet some of the students, and teach a little math. The picture above was tweeted by Rondo that morning, and Boston Magazine has more on the story behind it:
City Folks Are Wimps, And Other Things We Can Learn From America's…
In Game 2 of the NLCS on Monday night, 235-pound man-missile Matt Holliday broke up a double play by launching himself at Giants second baseman Marco Scutaro. Scutaro, only 185 pounds, never had a chance. The late slide demolished the 36-year-old's hip and took him out of the game. Since then the press has been
Even If Icing The Kicker Doesn't Work, It's Better Than Never Icing The…
Mike Tomlin iced the kicker twice last night, but with an unfortunate twist: First, he called a timeout on his own kicker, Shaun Suisham, who proceeded to miss a 54-yarder. Then he stopped the Titans' Rob Bironas just as he was about to attempt the game-winning 40-yarder. Bironas waited two minutes and nailed the kick, …
Bud Selig's New, Random Postseason Knows The Soul Of Baseball Better…
Out of the 22 playoff games in the first two rounds of the MLB playoffs, 12 have featured at least one team on the brink of elimination, and six of those will have been sudden death for both teams. Bud Selig's new postseason format puts a lot more weight on single games, which has led many players, writers, and fans to …
How The Crazy-Ass AL Division Races Unfolded: Visualizing Momentum
The Athletics and the Yankees clinched their respective division titles on the same day, but the paths they took to get there were very different. The A's budget freight train slammed through a Rangers squad that had sat atop the AL West for over 170 consecutive days, while the Yankees barely edged the Orioles despite…
Just How Tight Is The AL Playoff Race?
With three weeks to go in the season, over half of baseball is still in the race. Seventeen teams are within five games of a playoff spot. You might think that's mostly due to the new second wild card, and that's the case in the NL. With all three division leaders comfortable and the Braves safe at the first wild…
