Peace at last

A great explanation of how a losing team can lead to a remarkable peace of mind.

Mariners fire their manager too

And the other shoe drops, with the Mariners now firing their manager John McClaren. Not surprising given the total lack of success the Mariners have encountered this year. McClaren shares some significant responsibility for this. He was given a crappy roster, but he’s managed that roster in just about the worst way possible.

Via: USS Mariner

Bill Bavasi Fired

My beloved baseball team the Seattle Mariners just fired Bill Bavasi, who is the architect of a $117 million team with the worst record in Baseball. The saddest part here is that some of the smartest baseball people I know of have been predicting the Mariners struggles for some time. The information to properly analyze what a baseball team should be expected to do has been out there for quite awhile, go read a site like U.S.S. Mariner if you don’t believe me.

I can only hope that they’ll hire someone with a modicum of knowledge about the new tools available to front offices, but my confidence in such a move is small. The problems with the Mariners were more than just the general manager, there’s widespread misunderstanding from top to bottom in the organization about how to build a winning team.

Biggest… Upset… Ever… ?

NY Giants pull off what is probably one of the biggest upsets in the history of sports. Some quick hits about the Super Bowl.

It was a great game, not a lot of scoring but the fourth quarter has to rank up there as one of the best ever in a game that is often boring. I have to admit I didn’t pay too much attention for the first three quarters, but I was glued to the TV for the fourth.

Living in Cambridge MA means that I’m surrounded by Patriots fans. I have to admit that after the Red Sox won the World Series I was a little concerned about everyone getting too smug around here if the Pats won a championship as well. On the other hand, as Dara remarked tonight, it’s going to be annoying listening to everyone’s whining too.

Now on a personal note; back when I was a dorky teenager I had no interest in sports, mostly due to my complete lack of athletic prowess. One day I decided that I would sit down and actually watch a football game just to see if I liked it. I was privileged to watch one of the greats, Dan Marino, pull off a last minute fourth quarter come back over the Cleveland Browns. That game made me a a Dolphins fan, and although my interest in the team has waned over the years I have to admit still feeling a little smug as the 1972 Dolphins are still the only undefeated team in NFL history -.

Quick hits

So work’s crazy right now and I basically haven’t had a moment to myself for a week and don’t expect that to change anytime soon, but since I do want to keep this blog updated on a fairly regular basis here are some quick hits.

1) the Bali climate talks are just depressing
2) this is classic
3) I’m scared about what the Mariners are going to do this off-season

Enjoy!