Moneyball- The Consultant Links

For $alary data- Use Sportrac and research
Like Patriot payroll for example or all NFL FA's.

NFL- Collecting Data...
Additional Data Sites

Soccer-
How to Build a Champions League Winner?
MLS Collapse?  Not so fast...
EPL and TV ratings
Additional Data Sites

Hockey-
Additional Data Sites

Baseball- Cubs and Moneyball effect of Ross
Additional Data Sites

Basketball-
2016 NBA All-Stars
No Stats All-Star-by Moneyball author Lewis-Google doc- use Clearly)

More on Battier
Cools stat visualization from NBA 2012
Player Projections- Melo and the League
Brainstorm Questions:
*Which conference can you find the best bet for talent in the 3rd round?
*Beyond height, what is the stat that predicts effectiveness for....?
*What is the balance of FA vs. drafted players of the past ....?
* Which country/league cultivates the best players that comprise UEFA Champions?
*Could MLS compete with EPL?

Manning vs. Newton- Dusk vs. Dawn

Legend Rises- Cam Newton (Sean/Mason/Greg Podcast) or this link

Letter criticising Cam and a reaction letter   Dear Cam Newton: Please Don’t Read This

Cam Newton: The Bridge to Somewhere

Cam Newton isn't afforded the freedom to fail like so many white quarterbacks who came before him

One Simple Trick For Appreciating Cam Newton

Clever satire revealing the double standard...

Legend Falls- Peyton Manning

Last Rodeo?

The audacity of Peyton Manning

Peyton’s Place: Why the Broncos Quarterback Should Retire

The Inevitable Decline of Peyton Manning

Sport Memoir Writing

• Why I remain...
• Why we love...

You get the idea.  Let's consider how we jigsawed the various sections of Lopate's memoir piece.  For tomorrow, you will write two paragraphs of the memoir.  We will revise in time to make the sentences pop with the confidence of syntax.

Let's review parts of the memoir to include in our own memoir.

The Pass by Ricardo Lockette
The Best Play I Ever Made
Why I Remain a Baseball Fan
Singular Focus (preparation for greatness)

Transitions from Lopate's essay

• I sometimes...
• The fact is I...
• I grew up in ...
• In a sense, the( insert favorite team/player)...
• It is sometimes posited as ....
• Part of being a ________ is accepting________
• I can still see in my mind's eye...(insert memory)
• The older I get, the more ________
• Of course being a ____fan is not all about ______
• Here we come to the most essential reason I cling to _________
• _______ has always attracted _______, a mixed blessing.
• With such a powerful inducement to keep me engaged, perhaps you understand_________
• Nor do I buy the idea that _______ must be like _______
• I have no idea how _____ compares with _________

Imagery Punch Up! Revise with Sentence Variety

Joakim Noah epitomizes best of Chicago sports 

 The Bulls without Noah is like a Chicago winter without a sub-zero wind-chill; tough but without its characteristic bite. Even coming off the bench in an uncomfortable role this season, even looking like a shell of the player who just two years ago was an All-NBA center, Noah supplied the Bulls an indomitable spirit they cannot replace. Not now. Not ever. 

from headlines of NYT:

Anthony had 19 points for the Knicks on Monday, including a game-tying 3-pointer late in regulation, after missing two games with a sprained right ankle. 

Peyton Manning, the Broncos’ Flickering Star, Glows 

Just in Time Wright went on the disabled list April 15 with a hamstring strain. Bothered by lower-back pain in May (participial), he was found to have spinal stenosis, a narrowing of the spinal canal (appositive). In June, Manager Terry Collins said, he thought Wright would be lost for the season. and this too... 

 We were tied 1–1 going into the seventy-eighth minute when Rooney misplayed a pass and then, seconds later, got the ball lobbed back to him and pulled off this unbelievable maneuver: With his back to the goal, he jumped a few feet off the ground, wheeled his leg up and over his head, nailed the ball, and sent it rocketing into the top-right corner of the net. The sound in the stadium was like a napalm strike, and yes, I did one of those frantic I'm-so-excited-I-don't-know-what-the-****-to-do jumping-hug things with the guy standing next to me. I like to think I ground a few grains of Martin into Old Trafford right then, and that he'll have those crazy-good seats forever. 

 From GQ 

 The Appositve can appear in many forms as well. The samples below show how you can - Appositive- Noun phrases that identify adjacent nouns or pronouns. They can occur as sentence openers, subject verb splits, or sentence closers.

 One of six players on the ice, Toews was a fierce, willful leader. Messi, a Barca legend, spent the formative years of his live living in Spain, not Argentina.
 Other ways of using the appositive-

HT to Grammar Monster
 Jane Smith, who swam 100m in under a minute, wins the award for most improved swimmer.
 Jane Smith (who swam 100m in under a minute) wins the award for most improved swimmer.
 Jane Smith — who swam 100m in under a minute — wins the award for most improved swimmer.

Friday Sports News Dump!

Chip goes to 49ers----Kan Kaep be resurrected?  Hmmm...Bucs?
Great profile of Cam-  I like him even more...
No more AIR BALL...AIR BALL... original letter.
The shame of the Rams ownership...and a measure to stop future hostage city situations...
ESPN...Ala Carte disaster

Pop and Sager have quite the rapport https://t.co/PUw1I5LXVq

— Brian Turnbaugh (@wegotwits) January 15, 2016

                                   

Fallacy return

From FNC-

GUTFELD: According to the Washington Post, growing research has found that always praising kids makes them shy away from real challenges for fear they will soil their perfect record, meaning real success is no option when you never dare to fail. Said one researcher, "We used to think we could hand children self-esteem on a platter. That has backfired."

So what's the long-term harm to all this feel-good nonsense? Well, by encouraging kids to look internally for validation, we've disconnected feeling good from doing good. Rewarding you for being you means you could be a crappy you forever. And that leads to one place: jail. After all, the people with the highest self-esteem are killers, because if you think you're really special, it's easier to get rid of those who aren't. Far better to instill a little self-loathing in your kids. If anything it'll be great preparation for middle age.

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Bleak Day for Chicago Sports-

Here’s the pool report from Walt Coleman about the Jonathan Anderson INT turned Golden Tate TD in Detroit pic.twitter.com/r9J9qZpuYY

— Kevin Fishbain (@kfishbain) October 18, 2015

Is Arrieta's pitch count catching up with him?  Contast this with what the Met's did with Harvey during September.

Here is some more economic theory applied to sports...The Coach Who Never Punts