Oscar Gamble Society

I speak Jive

One of the hardy perennials in discussions about NASCAR’s future seems to be the question of whether the sport should award franchises to teams, instead of allowing anyone to show up with a qualified car and driver and compete for a spot in each race.

It seems to me that the current rule that guarantees starting spots in each race to the top 35 drivers goes a long way toward creating certainty for teams and sponsors regarding their investments. So what the franchise issue is really about is a transfer of wealth from NASCAR to current team owners by giving team owners perpetual licenses for something they must currently win through competition. The France family would essentially be making equity partners of the people who currently own cars, and whether that would help the sport or not, I don’t see any incentive for the France family to do it.

It is striking that the person calling most vociferously for a franchise in today’s article is Richard Petty, whose Petty Enterprises seems to have fallen on hard times. Kyle Petty has fallen out of the top 35 and shows little evidence of an ability to compete for a starting slot on a weekly basis. So Petty’s call for a franchise seems like a whine for NASCAR to give him something he can no longer earn. Sorry King, but here at the OSG we call ‘em like we see ‘em.

An aspiring young hoodlum attempted to rob an 84-year-old retired Marine at knifepoint. Suffice to say, it didn’t go as planned. This story reminds me of a summer job I once had working alongside a former Marine. One of our co-workers asked him how he would respond if someone pulled a knife on him. Without trace of irony he replied, “I would ask him if he was high.”

I say “yes” - but I’m biased obviously.  Attached is a column that discusses Garnett’s candidacy:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dime-080327&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab4pos1

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The Yankees have decided to start the 2008 season with Joba in the bullpen. Perhaps this is just a stop-gap until one of the starting five gets hurt or Mussina proves definitively that his time has past.  One or the other seems a good bet to happen by Memorial Day.  The bullpen can certainly use him, since it consists of an aging Rivera and an assortment of has-beens and never-was’s. But I really hope they resist the temptation to groom him as Rivera’s successor. I don’t understand the value of taking a top-flight pitcher and placing him in a position where he’ll throw perhaps 80-90 inning per year when he could throw twice as many in a starting role. Am I wrong?

and you heard it here first. Now of course one question is on the lips of sports fans everywhere - can Mackey pull off the three-peat in Iditarod XXXVII?

From yesterday’s Boston Globe:
 
http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/articles/2008/03/10/to_some_a_vindictive_videotaper/?page=3
 
Hohler assembles a lot of things we’ve heard previously about Matt Walsh/WalkthroughGate - and perhaps adds a few things we were not aware of.
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Bob Ryan summed up my general feeling about Favre much better than I could hope to:

http://www.boston.com/sports/football/articles/2008/03/09/among_all_time_greats_favre_is_back_in_the_pack/

Tip o’ the hat to KJ for sending me that link…

Sal Paolatonio also did a pretty nice job of it as well:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?columnist=paolantonio_sal&id=3281535

The most interesting stat I saw on Favre was not in either article - in my local paper, they posted his lifetime numbers, and his career QB rating is 85. Remember, of course that “average” is 80.

I think we can all agree that QB rating is a flawed measure. However, it is what is currently used to mark how “good” a QB is; therefore, I find it fascinating that a QB with a slightly above average rating for his career (not a 2 or 3 year snippet, but a career), can be considered by some as the greatest QB of all time…

The Baseball Fatigue Average

I didn’t see the press conference, or even soundbites from it, but a few different people have told me that in his Eagles press conference, Asante Samuel said he signed with the Eagles so he’d have a chance at winning a championship.

Now, before I rant a tad… did anyone actually hear the soundbite, or know where I can get access to it?  (A cursory Google search left me unfulfilled.)  Its possible he was misquoted - or more to the point, meant to indicate that of the teams willing him to give him the money he was looking for, the Eagles were a team (or the team) likely to be a championship contender.  It’s possible.  But if not, then… (more…)