A couple of sporting notes ...
-- I was stunned, like most people, to hear that an IRL driver was killed, but that he was also a fellow Medill alum. However, despite the fact that he was just a few weeks younger than me, I'd never heard of him until today and that he actually graduated two years before I did. I will say that I dug out some of my old graduation stuff, just to be sure.
-- If your bracket is going to go all to hell, might as well have just a ridiculous Cinderella do it in the process. Every year it seems like a team I pick to lose in the first round goes to the Final Four, but this is ridiculous.
And a couple of reasons why Google Maps rule:
-- The Geography of Seinfeld, which maps out a bunch of different locations from the show.
-- Jacktracker, which now adds a geographic layer into the potential plot holes on 24.
Monday, March 27, 2006
Friday, March 24, 2006
Cheap birthday pop
If you're like me, after a while you get used to the list of celebrities sharing your birthday. Mine's an eclectic mix, ranging from Houdini to Alyson Hannigan to Peyton Manning and Mike Vanderjagt to the Undertaker. On the musical end, right now, I know of two notable ones because they're celebrated every year on the retro lunch hour radio show I listen to. One is Nick Lowe, who was recently feted on Coverville, and if it's an annual thing to hear "Cruel To Be Kind," that's fine by me. The other is Nena (or more specifically lead singer Nena Kerner), where hearing "99 Luftballons" every year elicits a different response, so it's interesting that VH-1 Classic is going to be a couple of days late in celebrating her birthday by playing her one big U.S. hit non-stop for an entire hour. It's actually part of a Katrina benefit, but you have to wonder who's really benefitting here?
I'm too old for this ...
So naturally I'm pretty much dead in my bracket pools after Duke and Gonzaga got bounced, both in spectacular ways. (Oh yeah, this photo is a winner.) Guess it's time to root on the Catholic schools to go all the way -- at least the Villanova-BC game should be fun for just that reason.
Other notes:
-- The Applebee's ad was seen just twice tonight, and only once during the basketball game. So I guess they've worn out their welcome.
-- Catching up on some of my DVR backlog -- Jimmie Walker is now Chris Rock's grandfather?!? Yikes!
And speaking of old, I turn 31 today. A couple of things come to mind at this birthday: I'm definitely not some newbie or junior member of groups in town. That hit home at an alumni club function this week where I definitely wasn't the youngest person there, not by a longshot, even though this event really brought in a lot of older alums to this really nice place.
I also felt slightly old a couple of weeks ago when a bunch of college kids came into the bar where I was playing trivia to celebrate one of the group's 21st birthday. I was probably a couple of steps away from pulling a Roger Murtaugh watching the kids come in.
Other notes:
-- The Applebee's ad was seen just twice tonight, and only once during the basketball game. So I guess they've worn out their welcome.
-- Catching up on some of my DVR backlog -- Jimmie Walker is now Chris Rock's grandfather?!? Yikes!
And speaking of old, I turn 31 today. A couple of things come to mind at this birthday: I'm definitely not some newbie or junior member of groups in town. That hit home at an alumni club function this week where I definitely wasn't the youngest person there, not by a longshot, even though this event really brought in a lot of older alums to this really nice place.
I also felt slightly old a couple of weeks ago when a bunch of college kids came into the bar where I was playing trivia to celebrate one of the group's 21st birthday. I was probably a couple of steps away from pulling a Roger Murtaugh watching the kids come in.
Friday, March 17, 2006
I won't go into great lenghts over my brackets. Picked a few upsets (UW-Milwaukee, Texas A&M), just missed a couple (San Diego State, Winthrop [depending on the entry]), had scares with Final Four teams (BC, Gonzaga -- damn Jesuits). And I'm still alive with Bucknell in the Sweet 16.
(Oh yeah, it's still disconcerting hearing Verne Lundquist referring to today's big upset winner as Northwestern and not Northwestern State. Heck, so now we've both beaten Iowa this season.)
What is interesting, at least at home watching it during the day, is that my cable company is taking advantage of the extra digital channels to provide four feeds of games at any one point -- which is excellent for yesterday and today. Unfortunately, one of the channels is HD-only, which locks me out of one channel, but I still can get three at once for no extra charge. (Although given the price of my cable, I'd better get some value for it.)
Of course, while it's fun watching all these games, seeing the same ads over and over again can get a bit annoying:
-- First off, the in-game promos by the announcers for this show are amusing since no one can pronounce the star's name correctly.
-- Secondly, after watching the same Applebee's ad over and over again, my one thought is: So how many members of the Gilligan's Island cast are still alive? And are they as annoyed hearing that jingle over and over again as I am. That ad campaign actually has me longing for baby back ribs.
-- Voiced-over cell phone ads are fine. The ones with people acting in it have me looking for the phone with the "theft deterrent system."
(Oh yeah, it's still disconcerting hearing Verne Lundquist referring to today's big upset winner as Northwestern and not Northwestern State. Heck, so now we've both beaten Iowa this season.)
What is interesting, at least at home watching it during the day, is that my cable company is taking advantage of the extra digital channels to provide four feeds of games at any one point -- which is excellent for yesterday and today. Unfortunately, one of the channels is HD-only, which locks me out of one channel, but I still can get three at once for no extra charge. (Although given the price of my cable, I'd better get some value for it.)
Of course, while it's fun watching all these games, seeing the same ads over and over again can get a bit annoying:
-- First off, the in-game promos by the announcers for this show are amusing since no one can pronounce the star's name correctly.
-- Secondly, after watching the same Applebee's ad over and over again, my one thought is: So how many members of the Gilligan's Island cast are still alive? And are they as annoyed hearing that jingle over and over again as I am. That ad campaign actually has me longing for baby back ribs.
-- Voiced-over cell phone ads are fine. The ones with people acting in it have me looking for the phone with the "theft deterrent system."
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Everybody in the pool
Like everyone else, I'm setting up my own bracket pool. No money, just pride on the line here. I might scare up a prize if you do win, though. I'm not trying to cannibalize on all my other friends' pools, just giving you another outlet to do picks. It could be a good test lab for your crazy bracket if you wish.
Yes, I'm using the SI Hoops Bracket Challenge.
League name: JQ's Bracketball
Password: narnia
Enjoy and good luck.
Like everyone else, I'm setting up my own bracket pool. No money, just pride on the line here. I might scare up a prize if you do win, though. I'm not trying to cannibalize on all my other friends' pools, just giving you another outlet to do picks. It could be a good test lab for your crazy bracket if you wish.
Yes, I'm using the SI Hoops Bracket Challenge.
League name: JQ's Bracketball
Password: narnia
Enjoy and good luck.
Monday, March 13, 2006
My brain hurts
Maybe there'll be some bracket talk on here. Not sure. I'm just wondering if I can get out of organizing the office pool again. I've got enough friendly contests to worry about anyways.
Instead, I spent a good part of a beautiful weekend here playing Team Trivia, albeit for a lot of cash on the line. That bar trivia group has been doing a "league" concept where your team amasses points over the span of a few months. So if you're going to a place seemingly every week (and score well), like I used to do, and a number of others still do, you'll have a good shot of qualifying for a final tournament where the grand prize is $5,000 (in actual cash, not just bar cash). In this case, the top 100 highest-scoring teams qualify (not sure how many teams there are, but given the company runs shows in about 150-200 places around town, there's bound to be a lot of competition).
My schedule precludes me these days from doing bar trivia on a regular basis, but thankfully my friend Dave had a team and was able (thanks to some holes in the qualifying process) to get into a play-in/consolation tournament on Saturday for the final 25 spots in the big tournament (and play for a $500 first prize). Only 22 showed up there, so we all made the big show, but we eventually finished like fifth or sixth (only three places pay off) after leading at the half. We played it conservatively in the final round, which cost us in the end. Then again, while $500 cash was the first prize, second and third prizes were $250 and $150 in house cash. For a sports bar, that's a bit much money to be playing around with.
The big show was at the 755 Club, the exclusive restaurant above left field at Turner Field. Given that the season hasn't started yet, it would seem it would be easy to park at the stadium and head in. Wrong we were. At the same time the tournament was to start, we hit traffic for a Hunger Walk around the stadium. It made for some interesting cell phone conversations with my teammates as we tried to figure out where to park without running over some of the participants.
We eventually got in, and it was an impressive setup. Once we got through some early registration snafus, there were 120 teams playing for the big prize. The amusing part of the whole thing, though, was that even at the 755 Club, we were still getting typical bar food but at stadium prices. But hey, chicken fingers look slightly better on nice china.
The competition was pretty intense and the questions were really tough. It really was trivia. And while my team was happy to have a sports person on board, I was consistently getting stuff wrong. Yet, through the half, we were tied for fourth out of 120 teams. And like the day before, we stumbled badly in the second half, falling down to a tie for 10th before the final question. However, we cleaned up nicely on naming People's Sexiest Men Alive (we named 12 of the 16 without getting anything wrong -- there are penalties for wrong answers) but ended up falling a point or two out of a tiebreaker for the money (name as many of the 15 American Idol contestants who had a hit on any chart). We didn't get the big cash, but it was a fun time and we got a cool view of the stadium.
But anyway, here are some of the best questions over the past couple of days to test your brain:
Saturday's questions
1. What state's entire eastern and western borders are both rivers? Iowa (Greg) -- We got this one. First thought Missouri, then realized Iowa would have similar rivers bordering it and have shorter borders.
2. At 3.75 pounds eaten per person per year, what is the country's most popular seafood? Tuna (JD) -- We missed with shrimp, but tuna makes a lot of sense once we heard it. That weight sounds like an average eight or nine cans per person per year.
3. Name either of the two teams that share the record for appearing in the most NCAA tournaments without winning the title. Notre Dame/St. John's [27 each] (Flax) -- I guessed Missouri, but the Tigers have the record for most tourney appearances without a Final Four. And yes, that's a tough question, but it's a great way to separate the field.
4. What composer could only write music and play piano in the key of F?
Sunday's questions
1. The snowglobe was first created to commemmorate the building of this structure. Eiffel Tower (Mark) -- My friend Alyson thought of this right away, but we ended up guessing the Statue of Liberty as we tried to associate it with something wintry. This would've vaulted us closer to the lead heading into the final bonus question.
2. Who is the oldest living First Lady? Lady Byrd Johnson (Mark) -- Jeopardy! helped and hurt me on this. We guessed Pat Nixon after all the hubbub over the sorta-hose on a Daily Double last week. Both Johnson and Nixon were born in 1912. Forgot that Nixon was dead. Whoops.
3. What is the only state whose capital contains none of the letters in the state's name? South Dakota [Pierre] (Mark) -- We got this one. Just have to go through all the state capitals. The question is: Can you do it in less the length of one song (and what song? Stairway to Heaven or The Letter or something in between)?
4. What day of the week is the only that's an anagram of another word? Monday [dynamo] (Mark) -- We tried to challenge our guess of Friday [fraidy], but otherwise, we couldn't jumble around Monday quick enough.
Maybe there'll be some bracket talk on here. Not sure. I'm just wondering if I can get out of organizing the office pool again. I've got enough friendly contests to worry about anyways.
Instead, I spent a good part of a beautiful weekend here playing Team Trivia, albeit for a lot of cash on the line. That bar trivia group has been doing a "league" concept where your team amasses points over the span of a few months. So if you're going to a place seemingly every week (and score well), like I used to do, and a number of others still do, you'll have a good shot of qualifying for a final tournament where the grand prize is $5,000 (in actual cash, not just bar cash). In this case, the top 100 highest-scoring teams qualify (not sure how many teams there are, but given the company runs shows in about 150-200 places around town, there's bound to be a lot of competition).
My schedule precludes me these days from doing bar trivia on a regular basis, but thankfully my friend Dave had a team and was able (thanks to some holes in the qualifying process) to get into a play-in/consolation tournament on Saturday for the final 25 spots in the big tournament (and play for a $500 first prize). Only 22 showed up there, so we all made the big show, but we eventually finished like fifth or sixth (only three places pay off) after leading at the half. We played it conservatively in the final round, which cost us in the end. Then again, while $500 cash was the first prize, second and third prizes were $250 and $150 in house cash. For a sports bar, that's a bit much money to be playing around with.
The big show was at the 755 Club, the exclusive restaurant above left field at Turner Field. Given that the season hasn't started yet, it would seem it would be easy to park at the stadium and head in. Wrong we were. At the same time the tournament was to start, we hit traffic for a Hunger Walk around the stadium. It made for some interesting cell phone conversations with my teammates as we tried to figure out where to park without running over some of the participants.
We eventually got in, and it was an impressive setup. Once we got through some early registration snafus, there were 120 teams playing for the big prize. The amusing part of the whole thing, though, was that even at the 755 Club, we were still getting typical bar food but at stadium prices. But hey, chicken fingers look slightly better on nice china.
The competition was pretty intense and the questions were really tough. It really was trivia. And while my team was happy to have a sports person on board, I was consistently getting stuff wrong. Yet, through the half, we were tied for fourth out of 120 teams. And like the day before, we stumbled badly in the second half, falling down to a tie for 10th before the final question. However, we cleaned up nicely on naming People's Sexiest Men Alive (we named 12 of the 16 without getting anything wrong -- there are penalties for wrong answers) but ended up falling a point or two out of a tiebreaker for the money (name as many of the 15 American Idol contestants who had a hit on any chart). We didn't get the big cash, but it was a fun time and we got a cool view of the stadium.
But anyway, here are some of the best questions over the past couple of days to test your brain:
Saturday's questions
1. What state's entire eastern and western borders are both rivers? Iowa (Greg) -- We got this one. First thought Missouri, then realized Iowa would have similar rivers bordering it and have shorter borders.
2. At 3.75 pounds eaten per person per year, what is the country's most popular seafood? Tuna (JD) -- We missed with shrimp, but tuna makes a lot of sense once we heard it. That weight sounds like an average eight or nine cans per person per year.
3. Name either of the two teams that share the record for appearing in the most NCAA tournaments without winning the title. Notre Dame/St. John's [27 each] (Flax) -- I guessed Missouri, but the Tigers have the record for most tourney appearances without a Final Four. And yes, that's a tough question, but it's a great way to separate the field.
4. What composer could only write music and play piano in the key of F?
Sunday's questions
1. The snowglobe was first created to commemmorate the building of this structure. Eiffel Tower (Mark) -- My friend Alyson thought of this right away, but we ended up guessing the Statue of Liberty as we tried to associate it with something wintry. This would've vaulted us closer to the lead heading into the final bonus question.
2. Who is the oldest living First Lady? Lady Byrd Johnson (Mark) -- Jeopardy! helped and hurt me on this. We guessed Pat Nixon after all the hubbub over the sorta-hose on a Daily Double last week. Both Johnson and Nixon were born in 1912. Forgot that Nixon was dead. Whoops.
3. What is the only state whose capital contains none of the letters in the state's name? South Dakota [Pierre] (Mark) -- We got this one. Just have to go through all the state capitals. The question is: Can you do it in less the length of one song (and what song? Stairway to Heaven or The Letter or something in between)?
4. What day of the week is the only that's an anagram of another word? Monday [dynamo] (Mark) -- We tried to challenge our guess of Friday [fraidy], but otherwise, we couldn't jumble around Monday quick enough.
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Terence Moore is yet another basher of the World Baseball Classic, and one of the reasons he cites is the same that got trotted out at the Winter Olympics for why people didn't care/watch -- there's no real "enemy" like in the past when it was the Soviet Union/Iron Curtain countries.
Well, actually, I think there still is an "enemy" when it comes to international competitions -- it's us, or if you wish, U.S. We're the Duke/Notre Dame/Lakers/Yankees of international competition since we're the only superpower left. Plus, politically, we're hated both outside the country and now, more than ever, inside the country. Of course, it's hard for us to be "patriotic" about our sports teams when we're not sure if we're patriotic in our own country based on what we believe.
I suppose when it comes to future world competitions, instead of thinking of looking at the competition as Russia, Italy, Germany or China, just pretend they represent other things (since more and more people can't identify where these countries are on the map). Use either Conan O'Brien's smack talk for other countries, or just pretend to call those countries "The German Republic of Bush," "The Russian Yankees," "China/Duke sucks," "The Liberals of Latvia," etc.
Going back to the WBC, I'm getting into it, even if the "Yankess" aren't. Granted, not all the games are going to be on TV live, or just on ESPN Deportes, but it's still an interesting concept that needs to be tweaked a lot. If anything, it's a PlayStation-like experiment come to life. And while there are plenty of critics of it, how do those anti-WTO protesters feel about it since Bud Selig says it's supposed to support the "globalization" of the game. Hmmm ...
Well, actually, I think there still is an "enemy" when it comes to international competitions -- it's us, or if you wish, U.S. We're the Duke/Notre Dame/Lakers/Yankees of international competition since we're the only superpower left. Plus, politically, we're hated both outside the country and now, more than ever, inside the country. Of course, it's hard for us to be "patriotic" about our sports teams when we're not sure if we're patriotic in our own country based on what we believe.
I suppose when it comes to future world competitions, instead of thinking of looking at the competition as Russia, Italy, Germany or China, just pretend they represent other things (since more and more people can't identify where these countries are on the map). Use either Conan O'Brien's smack talk for other countries, or just pretend to call those countries "The German Republic of Bush," "The Russian Yankees," "China/Duke sucks," "The Liberals of Latvia," etc.
Going back to the WBC, I'm getting into it, even if the "Yankess" aren't. Granted, not all the games are going to be on TV live, or just on ESPN Deportes, but it's still an interesting concept that needs to be tweaked a lot. If anything, it's a PlayStation-like experiment come to life. And while there are plenty of critics of it, how do those anti-WTO protesters feel about it since Bud Selig says it's supposed to support the "globalization" of the game. Hmmm ...
Monday, March 06, 2006
Interesting Oscars telecast, with EW and Defamer both having decent blow-by-blow blogs.
Jon Stewart was pretty sharp as a host and did a good job of reacting to the events of the show without overdoing it. However, it never seemed like the crowd warmed up to him -- it's like they wanted to laugh at some of his jokes but were afraid they'd be painted in a bad light either by "the public" or by his show later on.
As for other awards, since I only saw a couple of the films nominated for the top honors, it was more figuring out if I picked the winners right. I did a good job of predicting Memoirs of a Geisha for the "pretty" awards, but flipping the cinematography and original score awards with Brokeback Mountain. Speaking of the pudding movie, I guess I don't have to run out and watch it since it lost Best Picture (kind of how I felt about The Aviator last year).
But what does it say that I've seen exactly one Oscar-winning performance -- Reese Witherspoon in Walk the Line? Although if Good Night and Good Luck had won anything, that would've made it at least two. And would've made Mark Cuban an Oscar winner, which would've been strange.
One final observation: Chicken Little actually came out to present an award, even though the movie itself was not nominated for Best Animated Feature, despite being just three nominees. Was it really that bad?
Jon Stewart was pretty sharp as a host and did a good job of reacting to the events of the show without overdoing it. However, it never seemed like the crowd warmed up to him -- it's like they wanted to laugh at some of his jokes but were afraid they'd be painted in a bad light either by "the public" or by his show later on.
As for other awards, since I only saw a couple of the films nominated for the top honors, it was more figuring out if I picked the winners right. I did a good job of predicting Memoirs of a Geisha for the "pretty" awards, but flipping the cinematography and original score awards with Brokeback Mountain. Speaking of the pudding movie, I guess I don't have to run out and watch it since it lost Best Picture (kind of how I felt about The Aviator last year).
But what does it say that I've seen exactly one Oscar-winning performance -- Reese Witherspoon in Walk the Line? Although if Good Night and Good Luck had won anything, that would've made it at least two. And would've made Mark Cuban an Oscar winner, which would've been strange.
One final observation: Chicken Little actually came out to present an award, even though the movie itself was not nominated for Best Animated Feature, despite being just three nominees. Was it really that bad?
Saturday, March 04, 2006
The real Deal or No Deal
It looks like NBC is at least trying to pull a WWTBAM-type of oversaturation of Deal or No Deal, although it's addicting enough to stay on at least for a little bit longer -- if only because there's enough eye candy to keep things slightly interesting. However, those tie-ins with NBC shows have to go -- Molly Sims showed up in her Las Vegas character to bring Howie Mandel to Vegas (while contestants are still there).
But anyway, I think I had my own version of the game "shopping" for gas the other day. My regular station has seen the price go up 11 cents/gallon since Wednesday. That day, I passed on going there because another place that's usually more expensive actually had it 6 cents/gallon cheaper that the normal place (they quickly rectified that the next day). So in the process, I've ended up saving 17 cents/gallon playing some sort of gasoline roulette. It really has become a game in predicting when gas prices will bottom out and filling up then.
Finally, is it really safe to be nostalgic for the '90s now? I know some of the I Love the '90s panelists mocked the notion on the show itself when it aired (especially when it got to 1999), but now VH1 Classic is teasing me for another weekend with a "Smells Like the '90s" block of all '90s videos. Just think, these are all videos that would not have been allowed on the network when it first launched. Of course, when you realize Madonna's "Vogue" is 16 years old, well I suppose it does fit under the "classic" banner -- even if it is followed by Wilson Phillips or Right Said Fred.
It looks like NBC is at least trying to pull a WWTBAM-type of oversaturation of Deal or No Deal, although it's addicting enough to stay on at least for a little bit longer -- if only because there's enough eye candy to keep things slightly interesting. However, those tie-ins with NBC shows have to go -- Molly Sims showed up in her Las Vegas character to bring Howie Mandel to Vegas (while contestants are still there).
But anyway, I think I had my own version of the game "shopping" for gas the other day. My regular station has seen the price go up 11 cents/gallon since Wednesday. That day, I passed on going there because another place that's usually more expensive actually had it 6 cents/gallon cheaper that the normal place (they quickly rectified that the next day). So in the process, I've ended up saving 17 cents/gallon playing some sort of gasoline roulette. It really has become a game in predicting when gas prices will bottom out and filling up then.
Finally, is it really safe to be nostalgic for the '90s now? I know some of the I Love the '90s panelists mocked the notion on the show itself when it aired (especially when it got to 1999), but now VH1 Classic is teasing me for another weekend with a "Smells Like the '90s" block of all '90s videos. Just think, these are all videos that would not have been allowed on the network when it first launched. Of course, when you realize Madonna's "Vogue" is 16 years old, well I suppose it does fit under the "classic" banner -- even if it is followed by Wilson Phillips or Right Said Fred.
Friday, March 03, 2006
Good luck and good night
OK, so Bill Simmons is joining the rest of the fish at the World Series of Poker this summer, even though it seems like he doesn't realize it. And while he goes on about his story of winning money in Vegas after watching Rounders (phase one in the mainstreaming of poker) and seeing some young kids get smoked at the tables, it seems like he's completely overlooking the on-line phenomenon where millions of people can get lots of real action (see Franz Lidz's story about the 18-year-old WCOP champ) -- and get their way into the main event. Sure, they may be fooling themselves into thinking they're good, but does Simmons really think he's much better? (Thankfully, he doesn't.)
When it comes to the WSOP, experience only matters so much because the amateurs will do lots of weird things the seasoned pros wouldn't do. Sometimes the fish get burned, other times, they'll beat the pros. You just don't know. With the numbers growing each year, the odds that a seasoned pro is going to win the whole thing get worse.
However, he does make a good point that bad beat poker stories are just as repetitive and annoying as stories about people's fantasy teams. Which leads me to ...
The recently released book Fantasyland, a chronicle of Wall Street Journal writer Sam Walker's foray into Rotisserie baseball via the Tout Wars experts league.
As might be expected, some of the stories of how his players get hot or run cold before or after key trades can get tiresome (as was Walker's talking to players, coaches and scouts about his team during the season), but it was amusing to see his braintrust (a former NASA engineer now working for the Cardinals and a guy who's appeared on my site) battle over concocting draft strategy -- the clash between classic scouting and the numbers game.
Thankfully, getting a full season's worth of stories about the league's participants, including a couple of colleagues I work with extensively (Jason Grey and Matt Berry) does provide for plenty of entertainment, although I guess it helps to know them.
The most interesting part of the book, though, in my opinion, is seeing the very strange rift between Ron Shandler and SABR, which in a way is indicative of the odd feud between fantasy players/experts/etc. and the growing class of baseball statistical analysts, despite both relying heavily on numbers to reach similar aims.
If you're into the baseball numbers game, fantasy or otherwise, it's an interesting read, but I think it'd be hard to get into it if it's not your cup of tea.
OK, so Bill Simmons is joining the rest of the fish at the World Series of Poker this summer, even though it seems like he doesn't realize it. And while he goes on about his story of winning money in Vegas after watching Rounders (phase one in the mainstreaming of poker) and seeing some young kids get smoked at the tables, it seems like he's completely overlooking the on-line phenomenon where millions of people can get lots of real action (see Franz Lidz's story about the 18-year-old WCOP champ) -- and get their way into the main event. Sure, they may be fooling themselves into thinking they're good, but does Simmons really think he's much better? (Thankfully, he doesn't.)
When it comes to the WSOP, experience only matters so much because the amateurs will do lots of weird things the seasoned pros wouldn't do. Sometimes the fish get burned, other times, they'll beat the pros. You just don't know. With the numbers growing each year, the odds that a seasoned pro is going to win the whole thing get worse.
However, he does make a good point that bad beat poker stories are just as repetitive and annoying as stories about people's fantasy teams. Which leads me to ...
The recently released book Fantasyland, a chronicle of Wall Street Journal writer Sam Walker's foray into Rotisserie baseball via the Tout Wars experts league.
As might be expected, some of the stories of how his players get hot or run cold before or after key trades can get tiresome (as was Walker's talking to players, coaches and scouts about his team during the season), but it was amusing to see his braintrust (a former NASA engineer now working for the Cardinals and a guy who's appeared on my site) battle over concocting draft strategy -- the clash between classic scouting and the numbers game.
Thankfully, getting a full season's worth of stories about the league's participants, including a couple of colleagues I work with extensively (Jason Grey and Matt Berry) does provide for plenty of entertainment, although I guess it helps to know them.
The most interesting part of the book, though, in my opinion, is seeing the very strange rift between Ron Shandler and SABR, which in a way is indicative of the odd feud between fantasy players/experts/etc. and the growing class of baseball statistical analysts, despite both relying heavily on numbers to reach similar aims.
If you're into the baseball numbers game, fantasy or otherwise, it's an interesting read, but I think it'd be hard to get into it if it's not your cup of tea.
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