Closer Madness
Too little, too much. That’s what happens when a manager narrowly and artificially constrains his decision options. A couple of weeks ago, I discussed how …
Brian Goff
Sophisticated Simple — The Secret of Jim Harbaugh’s Success?
Back in October, Yahoo! Sports’ Michael Silver explored the factors behind the turnaround of the San Francisco 49ers in “Harbaugh’s Formula of Success Hard to …
Prospects of Stealing Second
Surfing the net the other day, I ran across a working paper concerning the decision to steal second base by Ashgar Zardkoohi, an economist in …
Estimates of MLB’s “Stadium Effect”
A quick follow-up to Take Me Out to the (New) Ballpark. I appreciate the comments and I find the shared experiences and emotions from teams/stadiums …
Stage Wins, Points Losses
In spite of winning 6 out of 21 Tour stages, Britain’s Mark Cavendish lost out to Norwegian Thor Hushovd for the sprinters “Green Jersey” competition. …
The Extra Variable
If my current employer offered me the same salary to stay home rather than work, it would be a bit like winning the lottery. I …
Michelle Lissel on Agency Problems
As economists, we see economics everwhere. It’s interesting to me how often economic intuition turns up , even if expressed in different words. One of …
Going Juantorena
The current IAAF Track and Field World Championships and the 800m final inspired me to reflect on Alberto Juantorena’ unusual 800m/400m gold medal “double” in …
The More Things Change …
CBS college basketball analyst and former coach (Manhattan, Villanova, UMAss), Steve Lappas made this (paraphrased) observation over the weekend: The game has changed. We used …
Sports “Codes” and Society
Big League Stew recently posted an article from Jason Turbow on “The ‘Code’: Ten Unwritten Baseball Rules,” drawing from his book, The Baseball Codes. He …