Entries with the tag: mlb

Your Hockey Pool is Safe

by Alanah McGinley on 06/08/08 at 01:02 PM
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Last week, the US Supreme Court rejected an appeal from MLB and its players’ union, to hear their case arguing that their statistics were proprietary, and that players names and numbers in the sport were exclusively their property.

Why does this matter?  Well, the Supreme Court’s decision not to hear the case was good news for fantasy sports fans, and especially the fantasy sport industry itself—a $500,000 a year, profit-making machine. By refusing to revisit the case, the Court was maintaining previous rulings that said—in essence—the statistics of professional sports are public domain. Fantasy sports sites can make use of that material without interference or added licensing costs. (Check out the Wall Street Journal for their hypothetical “Doomsday Scenario” if the Court had favored MLB...)

Anyway, the hockey bloggers at Illegal Curve drew their own short analysis of that court decision, as it applies to the NHL:

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Debunking a Myth That No Longer Exists

by Alanah McGinley on 06/04/08 at 12:26 PM
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There’s been much preoccupation with the fact that the Red Wings, possibly just inches away from winning this year’s Stanley Cup, may do so aided for the first time by a European captain. 

The origins of this come from the notion that Europeans are ‘soft’, ‘don’t make good leaders’ and don’t have enough grit for the big prize.  But where does that attitude even exist in the modern NHL and why this seemingly-endless obsession with debunking it?

As far as I can tell, the only prominent person who is still in hockey today that ever argued Europeans were soft was Don Cherry. And—aside from the fact that bombast and controversial commentary are historically part of Cherry’s schtick—I don’t even think Cherry believes that anymore.

So why do so many others still need guys like Nik Lidstrom to prove him wrong?

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Moneypuck

by Alanah McGinley on 04/26/08 at 12:40 PM
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Iain MacIntyre of the Vancouver Sun sat down with Mike Gillis yesterday:

As Gillis talked Friday about management models, it wasn’t Sam Pollack or Bill Torrey or Glen Sather or Brian Burke he cited, but Sandy Alderson.

Alderson is the former U.S. marine who had no baseball management experience when he was named general manager of the Oakland Athletics in 1982. His hiring was ridiculed by many in the baseball establishment, but Alderson revolutionized the game.

He relied on data and detached analysis rather than experience and emotion to choose players and build his team, which became the best in baseball. His successor Billy Beane, a disciple, introduced the concept of “Moneyball,”

An interesting interview, which also gives more insight into how his hiring came about.  You can read it all here, or listen to the audio of their conversation here [mp3].

Monday Top Ten

by Alanah McGinley on 12/10/07 at 03:29 PM
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Top 10 Reasons Why Hockey is Better
Than Other Major League Sports


10. No one notices when you have a labor stoppage.

People say that it’s particularly bad for the NHL, of all sports, when they go off the air for an extended period of time. Well, that’s rubbish.  The only people that even know about NHL labor stoppages are hockey fans themselves. But if NFL goes on strike? People are liable to get genuinely freaked out about that.

The NHL is much better at keeping such things under wraps…

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