God Bless the EPA

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An article at The Athletic yesterday (I’d link it but it’s on the pay side) notes that in the modern era of sports analytics we are now all football nerds. They offer a few new stats and acronyms, one of which is the amusingly titled EPA, Expected Points Added. Not exactly new to the nerds, but new enough among casual fans and rather accessible as these things go, EPA places a value on factors other than simply yards gained (or lost) when determining a resultant play’s overall value. The simple example is that one yard gained on fourth and one and better than five yards gained on third and ten.

The nerds say this stat goes back to 1971, putting it almost exactly in line with that other thing we know EPA stands for.

This one is way more fun.

Still my favorite season

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This Friday on Math and Musings you’ll hear me and Franklin discussing school calendars more in depth, but for now consider this.

Because we started way earlier than one would ever consider necessary, we’ve now been in school for more than a month. Long enough, actually, to already start getting Jewish holidays off. (That’s today, for those of you in the goyim.)

And according to the scientists…

it’s still summer.

Two thousand in the books

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Today’s bellringer: If a blogger posts upon his site three times a week, how long will it take for him to have a thousand posts?

(Pause to get calculator.)

How about two thousand?

Three times a week is about 156 posts a year (3 times 52).

Two thousand divided by 156 is 12.82, so a touch shy of 13 years.

I started this little blog of mine in November of 2013. After stopping the previous incarnation of this site in 2009, when I said I was no longer interested in doing anything for free, I said in 2013 that the non-pecuniary benefits of hosting one’s own blog are just too great to resist.

Still feel that way. And now I’m a little too old to change.

Hope you’ve enjoyed the first 2,000 posts.

They find odd ways to ruin a Sunday

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Discussion about last night’s game between my hometown NFL team–that would be the Washington Commanders–and the Philadelphia Eagles has centered mostly on the 4th quarter “excessive celebration” penalty called against Stefon Diggs.

It was Diggs’s first game in burgundy and gold, and with about 10 minutes to play the new guy scored a touchdown to put Washington within two points of Philly. Trouble is, on the play Diggs committed the unforgivable sin of bear-hugging the goalpost, a rather bizarre “celebration” counter to the rules. The 15-yard penalty put the Commanders out of reasonable two-point-conversion range and had to settle for a PAT.

Of course the Commanders would get a more legitimate shot at a two-pointer with about a minute to play, but that one seemed of course to be destined for failure based on the earlier gaffe, no?

That’s how things go in D.C., right?

Done in by celebrating.

At least they had something to celebrate.

Remembering 9/11 on the pod

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“Celebrate” is the wrong word.

Today on Math and Musings Franklin and I remember and pay tribute to the events of September 11, 2001, on this its 25th anniversary.

Hard to believe it’s been a quarter of a century, then again, that whole day was pretty hard to believe, wasn’t it?

“Enjoy” isn’t quite the right closer either, but in the most appropriate way you can I hope you enjoy this offering of not only 9/11 memories, but a celebration of all things American.

Some of my favorite things.

It was twenty years ago today

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Two of the most noteworthy things I ever did in life occurred on back-to-back days in September of 2006. It was September 9 and September 10, as a matter of fact, and though it doesn’t seem possible, I realize now those events were 20 years ago.

On September 9, 2006, I made my first and only trip to see, well, not just football… Notre Dame football at its titular stadium in South Bend, Indiana. That day I saw the Fighting Irish come away with a convincing victory against the visitors from Penn State. (Yeah, Paterno and company.)

The following day I was back in Binghamton, hosting as I did in those days, a celebration of jazz and politics–sort of–recording a live album at the On Q Jazz Club on North Depot Street. (Don’t bother finding it now; it closed nearly two decades ago.) That night was supposed to be a campaign fundraiser for me as well, but as referenced here not long ago, it was not meant to be. As I said that night:

“Tonight you were supposed to hear about my campaign. Instead, you’ll just hear about… me.”

My favorite subject.

Twenty years later… still is.

New legislator, psame pseudocampaign

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I’ve spent more than half my life studying the dark art of pseudocampaigning, that unholy alchemy practiced by incumbent politicians who spin informational brochures into thinly-veiled campaign literature. I “learned” from the master, one Thomas W. Libous, state senator from New York back in the last millenium, who brought the practice to rarified air. (Flew a bit too close to the sun however and after being removed from office spent the rest of his life on house arrest, but never mind all that.)

In 2017 I observed that my then congressmember, one Barbara Comstock (“R”-Va.), was taking up that mantle, and, if not at Libousonian levels, was doing quite well for herself.

And now we have Comstock’s heir, my congressman, Suhas Subramanyam, who has sent me not one, not two, but three full-color flyers in the past week, extolling his virtues, noting that he’s “fighting” for me (against whom I’m not sure), and “working hard on my behalf.”

Taking up causes with which I disagree and distributing campaign literature at my expense is more like how I’d describe it, but maybe they couldn’t squeeze that all in.

Must be an election year.

And we wonder why incumbent congressmen are reelected at like 95%.

You always see something new, right?

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Last night the Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the San Francisco Giants 13-12 in what is being hailed as the “game of the year,” though I suppose I could also call it “a pretty bad team beating a really bad team.”

Either way.

Funny thing is, the game was supposed to be a pitcher’s duel. It was reigning NL Cy Young Award winner Paul Skenes versus Logan Webb, owner of three straight All-Star Game nominations.

It was no pitcher’s duel.

One strange play after another, 35 hits (yes, 35), a dozen walks, and the game ends on a throwing error.

Pitcher’s duels are overrated, right?