Tag: Baseball

Remembering Ferris Bueller’s Day Off & Another Cubs Loss

According to the analysis of Larry Granillo, the Cubs game watched by Ferris and friends was the 5 June 1985 day game loss to the Atlanta Braves (2-4).

Today, the 29th Anniversary of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, the Cubs (21-34, at the time of this writing) will be taking on the NY Mets (28-30, at the time of this writing) in a night game at Wrigley. So, no skipping school to watch this one. Also, no singing in parades or driving cars through glass garages.

 

Chance & Necessity in Baseball

I know people don’t like whiners…but the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Last night, my very clichéd gripe about the abuse of statistics perpetrated by broadcasters of playoff baseball spun into a discussion of statistics and probability, including the contribution of computational models from renowned and/or infamous UC Berkeley faculty. As one is obligated to do in such situations, I Storify-ed it (and continue to as the conversation, like the playoffs, is ongoing).
Image from xkcd by Randall Munroe (Creative Commons BY-NC 2.5)
Image from xkcd by Randall Munroe (Creative Commons BY-NC 2.5)

Suicide squeeze

I am an unapologetic fan of violent, contact sports. I have wonderful memories of being a participant in violent, contact sports. On the rugby teams I played for, I was usually the guy tasked with bringing both the violence and the contact to the other team. These sports are fun to play. They are fun to watch. But, predictably, that violence takes a toll on the human body.

The recent murder of Kasandra Perkins and subsequent suicide of her killer, NFL player Jovan Belcher has focused new attention on the risk of violent behavior/suicide in these athletes. So much so that Major League Baseball is reportedly working on a program to help identify troubled athletes and get them help before things go really wrong. This sounds like a good thing (provided it is executed well), but wait…did you say MLB? As in baseball? Continue reading “Suicide squeeze”

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