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Archive for the ‘Sports’ Category

The Best Rivalry in Sports- Federer vs Nadal?

Posted in Sports, Tennis, tagged , , , , , , , , , on May 17, 2009| 5 Comments »

Roger Federer just defeated Rafael Nadal 6-4, 6-4, to win the Madrid Open.   Perhaps, even more noteworthy was that the victory was on clay where Nadal has historically been at his best.    After the instant classic finals at Wimbledon in 2008 and the Australian Open in 2009 where Nadal pulled out dramatic 5 set victories, this should be a real confidence boost to Federer for the upcoming French Open.   Who knows- maybe this will propel Federer to new heights in his rivalry against Nadal, which has most recently been a one sided affair.   To date, their matchups have had the following head to head results:

(more…)

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NFL Draft– are rookie contracts holding back losing teams?

Posted in Sports, tagged , , , , , , , , on April 27, 2009| Leave a Comment »

The NFL Draft was held and completed this weekend, highlighted by # 1 overall pick Matthew Stafford signing with the Detroit Lions for a 6 yr, $72M contract, with $41M guaranteed.  This continues the escalating, record setting trend for annual rookie contracts and is a sizable increase from the contract signed by last year’s # 1 pick Jake Long.  In the media overload preceding the draft,  I came across this question in SI.com (and NBC sports) senior writer Peter King’s mailbag that King found to be extremely insightful: (more…)

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Baseball’s performance enhancing surgeries

Posted in Sports, tagged , , , , , on April 22, 2009| 1 Comment »

After the revelation of steroid use by Alex Rodriguez,   I wrote about why it made perfect sense to me that the majority of  baseball players would take steroids (in the posting — Steroids and Game Theory, also re-posted at Draft MVP.)   But the next discussion I’d like to have is about the phrase ‘performance enhancing’, while leaving out the word ‘drugs’.    Many of the same reasons that players would risk their health for steroids apply to the use of elective Tommy John surgery or laser eye surgery solely to improve performance.   While not illegal, these procedures should create similar concerns as steroid use.    However, there hasn’t been much public discussion against these measures, yet there is potentially similar long-term health risks. (more…)

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NCAA March Madness- Auction style pools

Posted in Sports, tagged , , , , on March 15, 2009| Leave a Comment »

March Madness is here and that means bracket time.  While I’ve religiously filled out NCAA tournament brackets for many years, the last 3 years I’ve also participated in an NCAA auction.   A different and fun way to enjoy the madness.

Here’s how it works:

  1. You get 8 people who physically are together who each have to purchase 8 teams from the 64 team field from an agreed upon fixed budget– basically the entry fee to the auction; in this example, entry fee is $25.   So, all 64 slots in the tournament (the 64th through the 68th play in teams, the individual teams wouldn’t be purchased, you could have Winner of the match as the slot to be purchased) will be purchased.
  2. The teams are purchased in an auction style starting with the overall #1 seed and ending up with #64.  This follows the “S” curve to determine the order among teams with the same seeding. (more…)

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Steroids and Game Theory

Posted in Sports, tagged , , , , , , on February 25, 2009| 9 Comments »

Steroids, Steroids, Steroids…. Why 50% of Major League Baseball Players must have been on Steroids in the early 2000’s

The recent revelation that baseball superstars Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez tested positive for steroids or other banned substances has rocked the sports world and reignited the seemingly never ending steroid saga. But really, should anyone be surprised.

The late Ken Caminiti admitted in a Sports Illustrated story that he had used steroids during his 1996 MVP season and had indicated he doesn’t regret using them to get ahead. He further said, “It’s no secret what’s going on in baseball. (more…)

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