Ronaldinho vs Zidane: Insane. I wish I were as good at Ronaldinho at -anything-. (There's a move at 3:21 which literally made my jaw drop.)
Steve Sailer rebuts Malcolm Gladwell: In general, sports other than individual sports (track and field events, say) and baseball (in which the vast majority of what happens is one-on-one play) are very hard to model; Steve Sailer argues that counterintuitive results are sometimes just wrong.
The man in the NBA logo: I had no idea that the NBA has never admitted that Laker Jerry West is the model for its Alan Siegel-designed logo.
Cement Shortage Could Affect Cricket: Some people's priorities are not the same as my priorities.
Bill Simmons interviews Malcolm Gladwell: This is the best thing Simmons has done in a long time; Gladwell's explanation of how smart, knowledgable people fail (the Jerome James phenomenon) should be mandatory reading for all kinds of professionals.
On bad sports nicknames: And The Register will not let that barreled fish alone.
Someone really likes the White Sox: Really, really likes the White Sox. Really. A lot.
Running the Sausage Race: Exciting, even without Randall Simon waiting to kneecap the racers. "As we choke on Polish's dust, the other three of us are neck-and neck-until Italian Sausage makes his move." (via Off the Kuff)
Baltimore's Marching Ravens: My hipster friend Lee has a very unhipsterish hobby.
Making a Switch: Trans-gendered Sportswriter Changes Byline: Kahrl's Baseball Prospectus columns are now being bylined "Christina", and good for her.
"I blame Coach Snoop.": Snoop Dog's breakaway Pee Wee Football league overwhelms its competition.
Terry Bowden on African-American college football coaches: The racial dynamics of big-time sports are always fascinating, although I'm not sure that affirmative action for college coaches would produce the immediate results breaking the color line in baseball did.
The game that got away: The Tri-Mountain League and the rise of "Knickerbocker" baseball.
Say-It-Ain't-So Joe: Wow. "When Morgan talks, there is the familiar keening, the steady note of harangue, the complete absence of humor, the smug conviction devolving frequently into unreason and illogic, and we're not even out of the first inning." A Philippic and a half.
Congratulations to Plunk Biggio!: They have documented another historic baseball moment. Only 19 HBP to go!
From corsets to catsuits: A brief timeline of tennis fashion.
Balls Out: The life and times of Dock Ellis: "He had, in short, that certain combination of raw talent and insanity that very rarely creates Hall of Famers but almost always creates legends."
The Closer and the Damage Done: How Bruce Sutter changed the last thirty years of baseball.
49ers' in-house training video includes lesbian porn, racial slurs, barbs at Newsom: "'You do something controversial, you say something controversial, it will have an impact on this team. So remember, be mindful of your actions.' With that it's back to the topless club..."
The Baseball Reliquary Inc. - Home: You've got to love an art museum that features fake Moe Berg "Spy Catcher" brand fruit labels and an interview with Jim Boulton. (via Hit and Run)
Kronos: A Chronological History of the Martial Arts and Combative Sports: "Being a compendium of useful facts and figures to assist in the research and development of the knowledge of the martial arts, East and West." (via Things Magazine)
Rube Waddell: The Man, The Nutjob: "America's greatest southpaw pitcher, alligator wrestler, firetruck chaser, actor, bigamist, obsessive fisherman, rugby player, baton-twirling parade leader, Herculean drinker and philanthropic live-saving hero."
Yard Work: STOP ME BEFORE I BUNT AGAIN!: "The Red Sox, bereft of cheesecake, only recently won their first championship in 86 years. Coincidence? TMQ thinks not." Sheer genius.
Plunk Biggio: When will Craig Biggio become baseball's all-time hit by pitch king? (via Off the Kuff)
Kayfabe Confidential: This is the most wonderfully ludicrous idea for a roleplaying game ever: the James Ellroy wrestling noir starring Classy Freddie Blassie.
An Economic Evaluation of the Moneyball Hypothesis: The efficient market theory hits baseball. (via Infectious Greed)
Ordinary Least Square: The Puck Stops Here: Ongoing analysis of the forces determined to kill hockey.
In the Hall of the Mountain Kings: "One little man's journey into sumo wrestling." (via Alex Golub)
Best. Thread derailment. Ever.: Because there's nothing much nice to say about Eric Milton, the people at the Transaction Oracle argue about Neville Chamberlain and Sam Bowie
D.C. At The Bat: Baseball Prospectus ran the numbers on the boning Tony Williams and Bud Selig dreamed up.
Roger Clemens' phantom no-hitters: He's the most likely pitcher to throw a no-hitter in the history of baseball who hasn't thrown one.
Another electoral outrage: Red staters and blue staters all agree: Derek Jeter does -not- deserve a Gold Glove.
This is what schadenfreude was built for.: The Yankees' rotation was suspect all year, but now die-hard fans are left to wonder why they choked like a puppy with a chicken bone.
Rejoice, Yinzers!: To hell with studying the Zapruder footage! A physicist claims to have shown beyond the shadow of a doubt that the Immaculate Reception was legit. (via)
Allez Les Expos: A magnificent, Selig-flaying rant from one of Montreal's eighteen remaining baseball fans. (see also)
1935 Tokyo Giants road jersey: I know nothing about Japanese baseball, but what a gorgeous replica jersey that is.
Lew Ford, baseball nerd: Not as dorky as the Schilling-Glanville Everquest feud, but pretty damn impressive nonetheless. (see also)
One Day at Fenway: Baseball writer Rob Neyer's adventures with Amazon reviews and identities.
The medal winners in Olympic design: A handful of excellent decorative and functional designs from the Olympics, most especially including Otl Aicher's 1972 sports pictograms. (see also) (via)
Bill Simmons and Chuck Klosterman yammer about the Olympics: ESPN needs to chain them to their desks and make this a regular feature. Skot "Izzle Pfaff" Kurruk and a tweaking Hunter S. Thompson can sub in if Klosterman and Simmons make a break for Canada and freedom.
Giving new meaning to the term "enforcer": "Danton has been jailed since his arrest April 16 in San Jose, Calif., a day after the San Jose Sharks eliminated the Blues from the playoffs. The Blues released Danton on July 1." And hey, I bet he's looking for a new agent!
Battlefield Baseball, a Japanese kung-fu zombie movie: "Unfortunately, their rivals at Gedo High have already died doing so, and the ranks of the team are now swelled with zombies armed to the teeth with an assortment of hard-edged implements." I hated "Versus", though. (trailer here)
Cards as weapons: Excerpts from the great Ricky Jay's out-of-print (and very expensive) book. (via)
The hidden ball trick: A comprehensive list of times that professional sports' stupidest trick play actually worked. (Poor Ozzie Guillen.)
Donald Sterling, basketball's savviest, lamest owner: It's like Bizarro "Moneyball" -- instead of finding ways to win cheaply, Donald Sterling finds ways to lose very, very cheaply.
Where the Tampa Bay Lightning got their name: Fair enough, but it still sounds like an arena football team from Louisville to me. (see also)
Steve Dalkowski, the greatest arm ever to miss the bigs: Capable of throwing a 110-mph fastball and throwing -through- an outfield fence, Dalkowski didn't learn control until just before a career-ending injury.
Rob Neyer on "Scout-speak": "LONG LIMBED. RACE HORSE TYPE BODY. THIN ANKLES. LOOSE, LIVE, GRACEFUL ACTIONS. FULLY MATURED. RESEMBLES JON OLERUD."
Pro wrestlers Nikita Koloff and Krusher Kruschev remember Reagan: "Ivan Koloff, who, like Nikita, retired from wrestling in the early 1990s, says that the end of the Cold War 'took the edge off' his character. 'Democracy is good for the world,' he says. 'But it was bad for business.'"
The Eephus Pitch: The world needs more junkballers.
Doug Pappas' Baseball Prospectus archive: Doug Pappas wrote for fans and sabrematricians interested in the "money" part of "Moneyball"; Baseball Prospectus made all his work available after his untimely death. (see also)
The baseball scorecard: Your guide to making incomprehensible scribblings on a mustard-stained page.
Best perfect game ever: No offense to Randy, but last night's game didn't involve Babe Ruth punching the ump.
Project Knuckleball: All hail the sons of Tim Wakefield! Knuckleballers are inherently valuable if only because their arms -never get hurt-; man was not meant to throw 94-mph fastballs, but 64-mph knucklers are another story.
The Albuquerque Isotopes: Minor league baseball teams have the greatest names.
Cardinals linebacker Pat Tillman dies in Afghanistan: He turned down a three-million dollar multiyear contract to become an Army Ranger.
The Fighting Nimrods: Without sports, who would cheer for the Nimrods? (see also)
Tallulah Bankhead on Willie Mays: On the Giants, the color line, and the Say-Hey Kid, darlings. (via)
Hacking Mass 2004: Choose the worst players to keep getting plate time and win $100. Go Devil Rays!
The curious case of Sidd Fitch: George Plimpton's wonderful April Fool's prank from a 1985 Sports Illustrated
The Orioles Warehouse: An informative blog dedicated to the doings of my poor, pathetic Birds.
Curt Schilling and Doug Glanville Everquest beef: Possibly my favorite bit of sports-related silliness of the last decade. Scythehands Voxslayer forever! (later followup) (see also)
Michael Lewis and Coach Fitz: The 'Moneyball' and 'Liar's Pokers' encomium to his hard-assed high school baseball coach
Mark Cuban's blog: I'll give it six weeks until he starts drawing fines. (via)
An elegy for the ACC: Will football wreck college basketball's best conference? All signs point to yes. (Oh yeah -- fear the turtle!)
A review of Web bracket interfaces: But will they automatically pick this year's #13 upset for you?
Hockey's top ten cheap shots: Where should the Bertuzzi-Moore hit place? You make the call!
A-Rod to the Yankees?: I think I need a drink.
Tadano knows he may face fan abuse in major league parks such as Yankee Stadium...: I'll say.
Sepak Takraw: Amazing-sounding Malaysian sport (see also)