Month: September 2014

From Brilliant Reader Ed:  Yo Joe! Can football be saved?  Right now the physical toll on the players and the violent culture are dragging the game down.   Joe:  Pro football remains the most popular spectator sport in America by a landslide so “saved” might not be the right word. Most people love football so…

From Brilliant Reader William: Yo Joe! You have written a lot in the past about the Hall of Fame voting process, and I’ve been wondering: Is there any chance Jeter or Mariano get 100% of the Hall of Vote? Was wondering if you think these guys, or any other players playing today, have a shot.

Three days in a row! From Brilliant Reader Adam. Yo Joe! What happened with the Baseball 100? It was really going well, then hit #41 and just stopped. At least release your top 40, even if you can’t write a post on each of them.

Happy September 9. On this day 15 years ago, Cal Ripken hit into his 329th career double play, breaking Henry Aaron’s record. There’s a very good chance that, before he’s done, Albert Pujols will pass Ripken.

Big fan of Bill James’ “Hey Bill” feature on his website where he engages readers, answers questions, posts responses and so on. I asked Bill about it not long ago, and he told me that he (mostly) likes doing it because it keeps his mind sharp about things. My mind is not sharp about things at the moment….

It is September 8 in the Heartland’s City of Fountains, and do you know where your Kansas City Royals are? They are in a most unfamiliar spot, first place, two games up on Detroit in the standings, a game and a half up in a version closer to reality, 20 full games to go. The…

This year, there will be four different grand slam winners in tennis. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, this would happen all the time. Well the sport in those days was dominated by specialists. Paris’ red clay belonged to topspin-laden sluggers like Gustavo Kuerten and Carlos Moya and Gaston Gaudio and Juan Carlos Ferrero…

Yes, it was an extraordinary thing watching Roger Federer fight off time yet again Thursday night. He looked positively beaten when down two sets to the preposterously talented Gael Monfils. Even after gutting his way through the third set, Federer still looked beaten. It wasn’t until Federer held off two match-points in the fourth set…

Sure, I’ll admit it: I don’t know exactly what to do with FIP – the Fielding Independent Pitching numbers that analyze a pitcher based entirely on strikeouts, walks and home runs allowed. On the one hand, I believe the Voros McCracken discovery that most of a pitcher’s value is tied up in those three things,…