regressing Page 8 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
The NFL Coaches And Quarterbacks Who Get The Most TV Screentime
Here's a simple question: In between the very little football played in an NFL game, who gets shown on TV the most? Usually, it's the coach and quarterback—but the Wall Street Journal went through two games for every team this year and ticked off which coaches and quarterbacks get the most screentim...
Chart: Relief Pitchers Earning The Most Postseason Decisions In 50 Years
This chart from yesterday by High Heat Stats MLB shows decisions are being earned by relievers in these playoffs at the highest rate since 1964. Since the playoff sample pool has grown over time (championship series started in 1969, division series started in 1995, and wild card started in 2012), th...
Chart: 145 Years Of College Football Championships By Conference
Here's a chart from 614 analytics that displays college football national championships grouped by conference over the last century and a half. Look at all those Ivy titles! ...
The Lakers Will Play Terrible Basketball, On Purpose
Byron Scott gave an interview last week following the Lakers' first preseason game; it went largely ignored, because preseason is stupid and no one cares. But with the Lakers looking like one of the more conspicuous disasters going so far—without any plans of tanking, bear in mind—let's take a quick...
Chart: MLB Strike Zone Keeps Expanding
This chart from Jon Roegele of The Hardball Times shows the MLB strike zone for right-handed hitters has expanded 46 square inches since 2009. And this season had the largest single-year increase of the PITCHf/x era as the zone grew 16 square inches expanding from 459 square inches to 475....
Mike Nugent's Missed Field Goal Was The Costliest Play Of Week 6
On the last play of a tied overtime game Mike Nugent missed a chip-shot field goal, which would have won the game for the Bengals. The miss led to the first tie in the NFL this season and was the most detrimental play of the week. According to data from Brian Burke of Advanced Football Analytics...
Chart: Where Pro Athletes Are Born In America
Ben Blatt put together this chart for Slate that shows where current pro athletes were born in America. NHL players tend to come from the Northeast and NFL players are concentrated in the South; New York produces a higher proportion of NBA than NFL players, and California is a hotbed for baseball ta...
It's Almost Been 25 Years Since Browns Beat Steelers As Favorites
The Browns are favorites against the Steelers Sunday, which is only the second time Cleveland has been favorited in the 26 contests between the two teams since divisional realignment in 2002. If the Browns win, it'll be the first time in 42 games that the Browns were both the favorites and won the g...
DeMarco Murray Has Been The NFL's Best Running Back. Can He Keep It Up?
Cowboys running back DeMarco Murray is dominating the NFL right now, leading the league with 670 yards in five games, 210 more than the next guy, Le'Veon Bell. Murray got there on 130 attempts, an absurd number at this point of the season (sad-ass LeSean McCoy is in second place with 94). He's on ...
Changing Conferences Doesn't Affect College Football Success
Whenever teams join a new conference, commentators debate whether their "styles of play" can succeed in their new conference. This has become a clichéd debate this past decade as a plethora of universities have ditched their old ties to pursue new conferences, in search of as much television revenue...
MLB Managers Are Playing Less Small Ball Than Ever
It's well documented we're in an era of dominant pitching, with declines in home runs and batting averages coinciding with the highest strikeout rates in MLB history. But there are also other, less prominent stats gravitating toward record rates that have slipped by most fans. ...
Matt Forte's Fumble Was The Most Damaging Play Of Week 5
With under fives minutes to play in a tie game, Chicago possessed the ball with an opportunity to control the clock and take the lead. But Matt Forte fumbled in what was the most detrimental play of the week. According to data from Brian Burke of Advanced Football Analytics the fumble lowered th...
What's More Improbable: An 18-Inning Playoff Game Or A 13-Inch Penis?
The Giants-Nationals 18-inning game Saturday was the longest in MLB postseason history. But that still doesn't give a proper picture of how statistically unlikely this is. So let's talk dicks. ...
How Do The Most Common NFL Scores Compare To Soccer?
On Friday, FiveThirtyEight ran a post that collected data on nearly 200,000 English soccer scores from the last 126 years. The most common score was a 1-1 draw, there were more than 13,000 0-0 draws, and an alarming number of games where one side didn't score at all. The most common reaction was tha...
Alexis Knocks Chelsea Keeper Out Cold; Keeper Stays In Game
Early in today's match between Arsenal and Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, Arsenal midfielder Alexis Sánchez turned to run down a hopeful ball over the top, nearly got on the end of it, and ended his run by plowing his hip through Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois's head. Courtois appeared to be knock...
The Most Important Passers On Every Premier League Team
Coming into this weekend, Yaya Toure, Manchester City's all-everything central midfielder, leads the EPL in passes per 90 min with 92.8. That is a lot. It would be logical and intuitive to conclude that Toure is the most influential passer in the EPL. But that distinction actually belongs to West...
