My Minnesota Twins fail on fantasy front
Supposedly hope springs eternal at the start of every baseball season, no matter how miserable the prospects for your home team. Sadly the statisticians at the Wall Street Journal burst that bubble by...
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The most useless sports stat I’ve seen yet
When Minnesota Twin Trevor Plouffe came up to bat last night at Target Field they flashed this totally irrelevant stat up on the scoreboard: “Through July Plouffe is the only Major Leaguer to have at...
View ArticlePatriots make a mockery of 249 to 1 odds against them
Check out this Super Bowl win probability chart by ESPN Stats & Info. It remains bottomed out at an Atlanta Falcons victory from halftime on to the end of regulation, after which the Patriots...
View ArticleBoffins baffled by baseballs being bashed beyond ballpark borders
On May 24, Major League Baseball released this scientific report on a puzzling increase–nearly 50%–in home runs from 0.86 to 1.26 per game over the last three years (2014-17). A panel of 10 experts,...
View ArticleMajor League Baseball experimenting with robot umpires
After a somewhat successful* year-long trial of automated balls and strikes (ABS) in the Atlantic League, MLB will bring in these ‘robots’ to second-guess their human umpires at nine of Florida’s...
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Archer’s Big Bounce Experiment
I am a big fan of University of Minnesota Athletics—even more so now after they sponsored a Science of Basketball project for grade schoolers. My 9-year-old grandson Archer jumped at the chance to put...
View ArticleFlipping out with frisbees
This weekend I enjoyed a nine-hole round of disc golf—a great way to enliven an outdoor walk via some friendly competition and the satisfying clink of chains when making a shot. The trick is to...
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Banging my head against the wall about concussions in football
Being a big fan of football at all levels—grade school (oldest grandson Archer, pictured, going good on the gridiron), high school, college (season-ticket holder for Golden Gophers) and NFL...
View ArticleMajor League Baseball goes all in for humidors to dampen homeruns
As I reported back in 2018 in my blog on Boffins baffled by baseballs being bashed beyond ballpark borders, MLB experimentally imposed humidors in select stadiums with high rates of home runs, such as...
View ArticleMajor League Baseball’s grand-slam experiment to pick up its pace
It’s Opening Day today for Major League Baseball (MLB), when hopes for a championship season hit a peak before reality sets in for most of our teams. Excitement runs higher than usual this year because...
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