11/05/24
December 04, 2005
Interesting article from Michael "Moneyball" Lewis : about Texas Tech's football coach Mike Leach. "Leach remains on the outside; like all innovators in sports, he finds himself in an uncertain social position. He has committed a faux pas: he has suggested by his methods that there is more going on out there on the (unlevel) field of play than his competitors realize, which reflects badly on them." (NYT Reg. Req'd.)
I heard an argument today that Billy Beane's system worked particularly well because of steroids. Essentially, Beane argued that one should look at a young player in terms of how well they make contact with the ball, walks vs. strikeouts, and batting average/on base percentage. He argued that those were the fundamentals to follow and that a player could always learn power on their way up. Of course, during that time period, Beane's ideology was particularly well timed. Picking the hitters with good fundamentals resulted in a good hitter with power once they got into the bigs and started juicing. The argument isn't saying that Beane's system is bad, just that it was aided by the fact that his thinking corresponded with the steroid era.
posted by DudeDykstra at 09:20 PM on December 04, 2005
Well, that argument ignores the fact OBP and SLG have always correlated better to production than AVG, HR and RBI. I suppose steroids could have provided some extra oomph to the Moenyball formula, but I don't think last year's A's team looked particularly juiced.
posted by yerfatma at 05:58 AM on December 05, 2005
Thanks for this link.
posted by chmurray at 09:49 AM on December 05, 2005
That was a cool article, and fuels my indignance at the general unimaginativeness of NFL coaches.
posted by fabulon7 at 11:31 AM on December 05, 2005
Last year, after a loss to Texas A.&M. in overtime, Leach hauled the team into the conference room on Sunday morning and delivered a three-hour lecture on the history of pirates. Leach read from his favorite pirate history, "Under the Black Flag," by David Cordingly (the passages about homosexuality on pirate ships had been crossed out).
posted by drjimmy11 at 02:42 PM on December 05, 2005
As his team raced onto the field, he gazed into the stands filled with screaming fans and wondered about the several thousand "cadets" from Texas A.&M. clustered in one end zone. They wear military uniforms and buzz cuts, holler in unison and stand at attention the entire game. "How come they get to pretend they are soldiers?" he asked. "The thing is, they aren't actually in the military. I ought to have Mike's Pirate School. The freshmen, all they get is the bandanna. When you're a senior, you get the sword and skull and crossbones. For homework, we'll work pirate maneuvers and stuff like that." I like this guy.
posted by drjimmy11 at 02:45 PM on December 05, 2005
Pirate School, I love it. Can I be an instructor? I'll wear an eye patch and everything.
posted by Fade222 at 04:33 PM on December 05, 2005
The Freakonomics authors say there's "a touch of not letting the facts get in the way of having a great story." The quarterbacks love him, though.
posted by kirkaracha at 05:48 PM on December 08, 2005
Holden, thanks for posting what is easily the best college football article I've read in years. I've always marveled at the Red Raider offense from afar -- now I have the mental eyepatch through which to view it properly.