Sports

In 1985 Michigan finished....

#2 in polls behind Oklahoma, they had the highest SRS in the nation, the hardest strength of schedule, and their only loss was by two points to Iowa

Technical innovations from the Golden Team....

-A focus on chemistry. Other national squads changed their lineups from year to year and game to game and so players had little experience playing with each other, -Most teams played the WM: 3-2-2-3, but Hungary didn't have a traditional centre forward and so played WW: 3-2-3-2 where one of the forwards moves back into midfield

The three biggest arguments against Barkley being a top 15 player ever:

-He often had poor defensive instincts, -He was a post player with no post-moves and insisted on taking threes (.266 on 1.9 attempts per game), -His last top ten season in both win shares and VORP is 1993 when he was just 29, quite poor longevity

The three biggest arguments for Charles Barkley being a top 15 player ever:

-He was an extremely efficient scorer on high volume, led the league in TS% four years in a row between 1987 and 1990. -He averaged 4.0 offensive rebounds per game, only comparable with Rodman and Malone -Had to be double-teamed (even by the 90s Bulls) and so created opportunities passing out of double teams, he averaged over 4 assists per game for his prime.

Some fun facts about the 2000 Ravens:

-They allowed 970 rushing yards on 2.7 yards per attempt -Held opponents to one score in 11/20 games -They allowed 16 TDs in 16 regular season games and 10.3 yards per game

The 90s Knicks are one of the stronger teams to never win a title:

-They made four Eastern conference finals between 1993 and 2000 -They lost in the Finals in 1994 (1994 was seven games) and 1999, to the Rockets and Spurs -They lost a seven game series to the Pacers in 1995 in the ECF, game seven was decided by two points and Ewing missed a late finger roll

The 1914 Boston Braves are a fascinating team for several reasons:

-They won the World Series -They were in last place on July 4, started the season 26-40 and ended 86-19 -None of their players had 400 at-bats -In an era where batting average was king only one of their players hit above .300

In 1996 George McCloud averaged 8.6 threes per game and shot....

.374, his record for three point attempts wasn't broken until Curry in 2016

Bob Cousy shot ______ from the field in his career....

.375

In 1957 Ted Williams was 38 years old and he hit....

.388 with an OBP of .526

In 1958 Jack Twyman led the league in field goal percentage at

.452

Players who were at .299 in their last at-bat of the season hit (sample size of 137, 0 walks)

.463

Dirk may be the greatest mid-range shooter of all-time, he averaged....

.474 on a huge 5.66 attempts per game. The only player I found with a higher percentage was Nash (.485) and Dirk uses the midrange much more than Durant did

Durant may have the greatest mid-range shooting peak ever (2017-2022), he has averaged (mid-range here defined as 16+ feet but not a three)....

.530 on 3 attempts per game, it's worth noting he wasn't a great midrange shooter on OKC he averaged .420

The record for single season on-base percentage is

.609, Barry Bonds, 2004, aided by 120 intentional walks.

The top goalkeepers can save about ____ goals per 90 minutes....

0.1, Jan Oblak is the leader since the stat was created at 0.17. Alisson follows at 0.12

In a typical study the gains to protein consumption stop at around....

0.65 g/lbs

In 2019 Lebron shot _____ from the free throw line....

0.665, he has five seasons below .700.

ESPN's RAPM started in 1997, these are the leaders since that time (each player's best year is listed)....

1). Curry, 2016, 27.01 wins, 2). Jokic, 2022, 26.12, 3). Lebron, 2009, 25.85, 4). Kevin Garnett, 2003, 25.76

Define peak as the average of your four best passer rating index seasons, the highest peaks ever are:

1. Aaron Rodgers (137.2), t-2. Montana and Manning (135.8), 4. Brady (134.5), 5. Staubach (133.8), and 6. Brees (132.8)

Dirk is the least turnover prone of the great players at....

1.6 per game, Lebron averaged 3.5 and Magic averaged 3.9

Bikes only constitute about ___% of total drag....

10, so there is a limit to how much they can actually help

Weightlifting was chaotic in its early days and the 1904 Olympics saw a....

10-event dumbbell decathlon

In 2003 Barry Bonds had....

10.2 WAR despite missing 32 games, he was on pace for 12.5

Completely meaningless but the top three players in career WAR all have a strikeout rate between....

12.2 and 12.5%

Models suggest that an all-star team would probably win....

120 games, a great all-star team might win 140

In his 27 career playoff games Peyton Manning went.....

14-13, with 25 picks and a passer rating of 87.4. Notable poor performances include a 41-0 loss to the Jets in 2002 and his 4-interceptions in a 2003 loss to the Patriots in the AFC championship

The 1961 Celtics had six players who scored between ____ and _____ PPG....

15 and 21.3, (Heinsohn, Cousy, Russell, Jones, Sharman, Frank Ramsey)

In the top leagues about ____% of shots are goals and ____% of shots are on target....

15 and 50, therefore about 35% are on target and saved

Ichiro probably missed out on _______ WAR if his pre-age 27 performance was equal to players with a similar post-27 performance.....

15-20 WAR, put him at 72.7-77.7 instead of 57.7

Ray Lewis has the record for single season solo tackles at.....

156 in 1997, 20 ahead of second-place Patrick Willis. He made an incredible 20.2% of his team's tackles that year

In 1927 including endorsements Babe Ruth made....

164,000 (70,000 salary, 94,000 endorsements), this is 2.8 million dollars by inflation or 15 million if you adjust for living standards (Ruth made 205x more than GDP per capita)

Between 1980 and 1985 the NCAA let conferences choose the distance of their three-point line and the ACC somewhat oddly chose....

17 feet 9 inches

Deacon Jones finished his career with....

173.5 sacks, 0.91 per game. He led the league five times, no other player has led it more than once

In 19 seasons how many times did Ted Williams have an OPS of 1.000 or higher?

18

James Naismith invented basketball in....

1891

Russell Branyan never played more than 131 games in a season but is notable for being....

18th in home runs per at-bat, ahead of Pujols, Hank Aaron, and Willie Mays. He finished his career with 194 homers. If he had 10,000 at-bats at the same rate he would have 661 homers

The World Series was first held in 1903 but was not held in ____ because....

1904 because John McGraw did not consider the AL a legitimate league

The only team to lose three World Series in a row

1907-1909 Tigers, they also had the top two all-time in career triples

Which World Series had nine games?

1919, 1920, 1921

The notion of a relief pitcher didn't exist until the....

1920s when the Nationals introduced deliver Firpo Marberry.

Most single season WAR by a team

1927 Yankees, 66.3

The first team got lights in....

1935, it was the Reds, the Cubs didn't get lights until 1988

Alabama has only one number one pick in its history...

1948

The years of Michigan's national titles

1948 and 1997

Bobby Layne led the Lions to championships in....

1952 and 1953, he was injured when they won in 1957

What year was the Cy Young introduced?

1956

No team has won back to back World Cups since.....

1958-1962 Brazil. The closest things to dynasties besides them are 1994-2002 Brazil (two victories, runner-up in 1998), and 1982-1990 West Germany (won in 1990, two runners-up)

I created a stat in which the 7th percentile qualified player is defined as replacement level and you calculate by multiplying volume and efficiency to determine the true scoring champion. In this stat Wilt wins the "true" scoring title in.....

1960-1963, four titles. Oscar Robertson won in 1964, 1967, and 1968. Jerry West won in 1965 and 1966. In reality Wilt won seven scoring titles.

Before _____ there was a maximum wage in English football....

1961, the maximum wage was low as well, only around 24,000 dollars in today's money during the 1958 season.

Season where AL and NL played different number of games

1961: 162 for AL and 154 for NL

The NBA reached their scoring peak in _______ and trough in ______...

1962 (118.8 PPG) and 2004 (93.4)

Several newspapers published their golden boot before 1982, in some years there is a consensus but there was disagreement in....

1966 (Bobby Charlton vs Beckenbauer) and 1970 (Pele vs Gerd Muller)

The ALCS/NLCS were introduced in what year

1969

The highest point differential in NBA history belongs to the....

1972 Lakers (12.28), followed by 71 Bucks (12.26), and 96 Bulls (12.24) -- the Bulls is probably most impressive considering the league went from 10 to 17 teams between 1967 and 1970.

The Soviet Union had a good Olympic basketball team and won gold in....

1972, 1976, and 1988

This team won three in a row despite not having the highest WAR any of the three seasons

1972-74 A's were 2nd, 4th, and 4th in WAR

What years did the NL leader only hit 32 homers?

1973, 1974, 1976

The Netherlands have been involved in a lot of the most unsporting matches in history....

1974 vs Brazil, 2006 vs Portugal, 2022 vs Argentina, and 1990 when Rjikaard spit on Voller

The Tour began finishing on the Champs-Elysses in....

1975, Cavendish has the most wins with four all between 2009 and 2012

Last player coach in basketball

1979, Dave Cowens

NBA MVP voting was done by the players until....

1980, unpopular players like Wilt and Rick Barry tend to underperform (Rick Barry was 31-6-6 while leading the league in steals in 1975 and finished 4th)

NBA instituted a salary cap in what year...

1985 season

Only team to win the WS while allowing more runs than they scored in the regular season....

1987 Minnesota Twins, 85-77 record

Free throws per 100 possessions peaked in....

1987 at 30.0 FTA/100. They've reached their lowest point in the last couple years at around 21-22

What is the peak and trough years for stolen bases?

1987 is the peak, teams averaged 0.87 stolen bases per game. 1950 is the trough, teams averaged 0.25 per game

The biggest salary cap jumps in NBA history are in.....

1996 (44% increase) and 2016 to 2017 (34% increase)

Interleague play began in

1997

What are the odds of a corner kick leading to a goal?

2-3% of corner kicks lead to a goal, but only about 1% lead to a goal directly

Bill Walton has a really strong defensive signal his entire career, his career dBPM is....

2.5, he led the league in 1978 (3.7) and had a 2.9 dBPM on the 86 Celtics

In 1898 the Cleveland Spiders went 81-68-7, their owner sold off all their good players in the offseason to the St. Louis Browns (notably Cy Young), the next year the team went....

20-134

About what % of goals come from set pieces?

20-25% -- about 13% from corners, 6% from penalties, and 2-3% from free kicks

Zone defenses were illegal in the NBA until...

2002

The luxury cap was introduced in ______ and is usually around _____x the cap.....

2003, 1.2

According to elo rating the top five NFL teams ever are:

2007 Patriots (1849), 1983 Redskins (1800), 1985 Bears (1796), 1989 49ers (1795), and the 1997 Packers (1791)

The salary cap stayed at roughly 58 million between.....

2009 and 2014, when adjusting for inflation the cap was higher in 2007 than in 2014 -- the only time this has happened

According to the site clubElo the best team of all-time is:

2012 Barcelona (elo of 2110) -- similar to the other Barcelona teams but the year they transferred in Fabregas from Arsenal

The best all-time clubs in terms of elo outside of 2012 Barcelona:

2014 Bayern, 2014 Real Madrid, 2020 Liverpool, 2023 Manchester City, 1961 Real Madrid, 1993 AC Milan. Of the top ten squads seven come from before 2008

Surprisingly the greatest preseason underdog that ended up winning was the....

2015 Warriors (+2800), followed by the 2011 Mavericks (+2000), and the 2019 Raptors (+1850)

Drew Brees has the top three seasons in completion percentage....

2018 leads the way at 74.4%

Tommy John was actually a very good pitcher....

20th all-time in career WAR at 79.4, in 1979 he had 6.9 WAR for the Yankees

Of the 50 most expensive transfers in football history:

22 are midfielders, 20 forwards, 6 defenders, and 2 goalies

The three-point line was originally 23 feet 9 inches it was moved in 1988 and 1995 respectively to....

22 feet and 20 feet 6 inches, today it is at 23 feet 9 inches

In 208 games Warren Moon threw....

233 interceptions and fumbled 161 times, an average of 1.89 turnovers per game. The median team averages about 1.3-1.4 turnovers per game today

Running speeds decrease with distance but not linearly, it decreases at specific points....

25 seconds and 1 hour -- with little change between 10-40 minutes

In 1904 Cy Young threw....

25.1 hitless innings in a row, with a perfect game sandwiched in the middle

In 1978 ___ out of 28 teams attempted more rushes than passes....

26 (92.8%), in 2022 it was 6 out of 32 (18.75%)

A trained but non-elite marathon runner has glycogen stores that will last about....

2:20, 500 grams stored in the muscle, 150 in the liver, and the liver can also produce 10 grams per hour

The same player has the highest contact% in the zone and highest called strike% his name is....

2B Luis Castillo, 94% and 25.3% respectively

Detroit legend Mickey Cochrane is the....

2nd best hitting catcher of all-time, his 131 WRC+ is behind only Mike Piazza. He has a 13.8% walk rate and a 3.5% strikeout rate

Connie Mack's 3,731 wins as a manager is an unbeatable record but his.....

3,948 losses is even more unbreakable.

The most common MLB score is....

3-2, followed closely by 4-3 which may eventually catch it

Between 1980 and 1984 Adrian Dantley averaged....

30.0 PPG on .566, he led the league in OBPM twice. It's a shame he was a poor defender

1998 was a unique NBA season because seven of the nine best NBA players by win shares were....

31 or older, one of the two that were under 31 was 29-year old Gary Payton (the other was Tim Duncan)

In la liga Andres Iniesta in his career scored....

35 goals, Ronald Koeman scored 238 despite playing much of his career as a defender

In the 2000-2002 NBA Finals Shaq averaged....

35.9 PPG on .595 shooting with 15.2 rebounds

It's unclear how good Fidrych would have been, he had 4.7 WAR in his age 21 season the 13th highest value ever. The average career WAR of the players five spots ahead and five spots behind in age 21 season is....

37.0, a good null hypothesis. He really could have elevated those 80s Tigers teams, he would have been 28 in their 1984 season

The highest single-season RYOE is....

378 yards by Nick Chubb in 2019, Adrian Peterson is the only player to lead the league twice

The Lions won ______ championships before the creation of the Super Bowl...

4

For a given cross-section type ii muscles are 10% stronger than type I, meaning a 70-30 lifter will lift ____% more than a 30-70 lifter....

4%

Black batters were hit by pitch _____x as much in 1947 as white hitters....

4, black batters continued to be hit more for the first decade of integration and HBP evens out in around 1960

Ichiro has the most hits in baseball history.....

4,278 when his NPB hits are included to Pete Rose's 4,256

Other evidence in favor of Jerry West's greatness, he had a _____ BPM in his final season....

4.7 (3.3 oBPM, 1.4 dBPM)

The 60s Celtics had a lineup strategy of playing Russell....

42-44 MPG and then playing the rest of the players 28-32 so they were relatively fresh

Baseball fields have gradually decreased in size, today the average center field wall is 405 feet in 1930 it was....

430 feet. Regression analysis suggests that 20% of the decline in triples is explained by the change in ballpark size.

Steve Carlton has 90 balks, second-place has.....

45

How many games would a team of replacement players win?

47

Karl Malone was a ____% free throw shooter his rookie year.....

48, he ended up a 74% free throw shooter for his career

Polo Grounds was the NY Giants stadium between 1891 and 1957, it was notable for its unique dimensions.....

483-feet in center and 258 in right field

Babe Ruth destroyed the salary records, he made _____x as much as the highest paid deadball player and his salary record wasn't broken until _____....

4x as much (Ty Cobb), broken in 1949 by DiMaggio, but it wasn't until 1974 that a player made more in real terms (Dick Allen), baseball salaries had minimal changes between 1930 and 1970

In college Patrick Ewing once had ____ goaltending calls in ____ minutes....

5 in 5, there is debate as to whether his coach told him to do this

Over the 37 seasons for which we have data the same player the same player has led their league in both WAR and salary only

5 times; 3x A-Rod, 2x Bonds

Andrei Kirilenko has the best dRPM season by a small forward....

5.17, 2004; and the best three-year average of any non-big at 4.97

Highest single season WAR by a relief pitcher....

5.2, 1977, Bruce Sutter, 1.34 ERA on 107.1 innings

In 2017 Harden averaged a record....

5.7 turnovers per game

A 90-second effort is ____% aerobic and _______% anaerobic.....

50-50

The longest homer of the stat cast era is...

505-feet by Nomar Mazarra, who has only 85 homers in his career

A list of football clubs that could be considered dynasties:

50s Real Madrid, 1971-1973 Ajax (defender Ruud Krol), 1974-1976 Bayern (Gerd Muller, Breckenbauer), 1977-1981 Liverpool, 1989 to 1994 AC Milan (Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit, Maldini), 2006-2011 Barcelona, and 2014-2018 Real Madrid

In 1990 the Italian national team went ______ minutes without conceding a goal in the World Cup.....

517 (about 5.75 games)

Robert Mathis is the all-time leader in forced fumbles with....

54, a full 0.28 per game. His average is higher than those who trail him

The 1993 Bulls won 57 games with Jordan, how many games did they win in 1994 without Jordan?

55

The Comrades marathon is....

55 miles long, it is the oldest and longest ultramarathon in the world. Bruce Fordyce has the most wins with 9

Bill Russell also competed in high jump in college, his best jump was....

6'9'', two inches below the world record, note that this is before the Fosbury flop (1968, Dick Fosbury won a gold medal)

A normal baseball attendance in the 1920s was.....

6-10 thousand, by 1946 the Yankees averaged 29,400 which would be about average for a team today

The average cyclist who finished a Grand Tour lived....

6.3 years longer than the average person from their country -- intense cycling probably doesn't shorten lifespan

A batter's OPS+ is ____% higher during contract years....

6.7%

For how much advanced stats love Karl Malone they don't give him a fantastic peak. He has the _____th highest win shares season and _______th VORP....

60th win shares and 66th VORP

The ABA was ____ in exhibit games against the NBA between 1973 and 1975.....

62-34, note that in 1975 the NBA had 18 teams and the ABA had 8 teams meaning talent per team may have been higher in the ABA. Attempts to quantify league quality found the ABA was of lower quality between 1968 and 1971 and similar quality between 1972 and 1975

The sweet spot for altitude training is between....

7,000 and 9,000 feet, Ethiopia and Kenya have lots of communities at these heights

The 1927 Yankees averaged 6.88 runs per game, but that pales in comparison to the 1930 Phillies who allowed.....

7.69 runs per game, their opponents batted .346 which would have been 11th in the league if they were a player, one of their starters Les Sweetland has 36 strikeouts and 24 homers

Ray Chapman was quite a good player in his best season he had....

7.8 WAR (1917) and had 29.3 WAR when he died at the age of 29

The training programs of elite runners show that they tend to run between....

70 and 120 miles per week with significant variation, many ultramarathon runners don't have higher weekly mileage than marathon runners

The sticking point in the squat occurs at....

70 degrees of knee flexion, hip extensor loads peak at the sticking point while knee extensor loads peak at the beginning of the lift.

Tim Wakefield's 2008 season has the slowest average fastball velocity on record....

73.1

The handedness advantage in baseball is around _____ OPS points....

80, or in other words a rightie will hit a rightie at an OPS 80 points higher

In the 1950s in the MLB.....

80-90% of salaries were predicted by age, position, and batting average

The largest NFL stadium is Metlife Stadium shared by the Giants and Jets, it has ____ fans....

83,000 which would make it the 14th largest college stadium. Michigan Stadium is third largest in the world behind an Indian cricket stadium and one in North Korea

Longest on-base streak in history

84, Ted Williams, 1949

In 1971 the average NBA player made _____....

90,000 dollars which is 658,000 dollars adjusting for inflation or 1.2 million dollars adjusting for living standards

In terms of peak elo the best teams to never win a title are:

90s: 1998 Jazz (1766) 00s: 2018 Rockets (1792), 2010 Magic (1782), 2016 Thunder (1767) For reference, the lowest elo title team is the 1978 Bullets (1671) and the highest elo rating is (1865). For reference the 90s Jazz have an elo equivalent to a 77% of beating the Bullets and a 22% chance of beating the peak Warriors

The Warriors played 106 games between 2016 and 2019 with Curry and Draymond but without Durant, their record was.....

95-11, a 73.5 win pace

Merkle's boner refers to....

A baserunning mistake made by Fred Merkle in a 1908 game between the Cubs and the New York Giants -- Merkle failed to advance to second on a game winning hit, the game was replayed and the Cubs won (winning the NL pennant by one game and the World Series)

What is the difference between a free safety and a strong safety?

A free safety is either charged with a). Stopping long QB runs, b). Reading the defense/double-covering best receiver (Ed Reed and Ronnie Lott are examples). A strong safety lines up closer to scrimmage, may aid in stopping the run, and can cover HB when they become pass-catchers (example is Polamalu)

In 1976 in his first season with the Lakers Kareem averaged....

A league-leading 4.1 blocks per game, 1.5 steals, 5.0 assists, 27.7 PPG, and led the league in rebounds with 16.9.

The Chicago Zephyrs folded in 1963 and the Baltimore Bullets replaced them in the Western conference....

A more logical replacement was the Cincinnati Royals, the westernmost team in the Eastern conference. For most of the 60s the three best players (Wilt, Russell, and Oscar) were all in the Eastern conference -- if Oscar played in the West he probably would have made several NBA Finals before the rise of the Lakers

The first time through an order....

A pitcher's era is -0.25 below average, second time is about average, third time is about +0.25 above average

Spd is a stat devised by Bill James to estimate.....

A player's speed by their stolen base percentage and their number of triples. The highest of the great players is Ty Cobb (7.5), followed by Honus Wagner (7.3), Eddie Collins (6.9), and Willie Mays (6.2). Ted Williams' 3.5 is one of the worse scores you'll see

Regista

A playmaker who sits deep in midfield so he can bring the ball up like a point guard. Examples are Pirlo, Kroos, and Xavi. The downside is they are playing in a defensive midfield position and are usually offensive specialists, they may require defensive assistance

The Black Sox scandal was found out by....

A quick swing in the betting odds

Heysel stadium disaster

A riot before the European league final between Juventus and Liverpool where 40 (mostly Italian) fans died. English clubs were banned from international competition until 1990. They well could have won in the banned years (Liverpool was near the top of the world in elo rating), an English club wouldn't win the Champions league again until 1999

Your muscles are composed of muscle fibers, each fiber is a single cell. To increase in strength...

A satellite cell (which hovers around muscle cells) will donate one of their nuclei to support a larger sarcoplasm. When you cut weight your body is hesitant to get rid of the additional nucleus

Sweepers: what are they and what happened.....

A sweeper is a type of center back which was common from the 60s to the 80s, Franz Beckenbauer is the best example. They would roam free without a fixed position, often dropping behind the other two center backs but sometimes pushing forward and acting as a playmaker. The position declined because a). Managers today like to push defenders forward, b). Most teams prefer four-back systems now, c). Sweeper keepers occupy much of the role

Most career grand slams

A-Rod, 25

Between 1971 and 1975 the ABA plausibly had better rookies than the NBA....

ABA: Dr. J, George McGinnis, Gervin, Bobby Jones, David Thompson, Artis Gilmore NBA: Bill Walton, Bob McAdoo, Jamaal Wilkes, Paul Westphal, Darryl Dawkins

Oscar Schmidt took _____ threes per game in the 1980s while playing in Europe....

About 10

Fewest strikeouts in a perfect game?

Addie Joss threw a perfect game in 1908 with only three strikeouts

The Champions League expanded in 1991, previously only league champions played but after 1991 the stronger leagues could bring up to four teams. For that reason all the goal records belong to post-91 players, here are some great Champions League goal-scorers from earlier eras.....

Alfredo di Stefano (49, 0.84/game), Eusebio (46, 0.71), Ferenc Puskas (36, 0.88), and Gerd Muller (34, 0.97) -- Gerd is the record holder for goals per game

Modern leader in minutes per game....

Allen Iverson, 43.7, 2002

The modern GOAT of minutes played is clearly....

Allen Iverson, he led the league seven times, and his 43.7 in 2002 is the highest since 1978

The 4-2-4 formation

An aggressive formation which has four attacking players and just two midfielders, it was used by the Brazilian national team starting in the 1950s and by Pele's club Santos. Has the downside that it requires clever midfielders with great stamina, ideally a team can play with six attacking players and six defending

What if the MLB had reformed their playoff system before 1969?

An interesting team would be the '65-'68 Giants who finished second four years in a row, and had a short championship window as aging Willie Mays was paired with young stars Willie McCovey and Juan Marichal

Between 1952 and 1992 the transfer record was broken 17 times.....

And 15 of those times were a transfer to an Italian club

The 1977 Trailblazers traded Moses Malone....

And ended up winning the NBA Finals anyway. Had they not they may have taken it easier on Bill Walton and prevented his injury

Ryan Tannehill had 112 receptions in college....

And once had 210 receiving yards in one game

There have been ____ seasons where rookies topped 13% of players with 1500+ MP in a season....

And they were all between 1955 and 1963, in 1956 an incredible 23% of players were rookies. Today it's more like 4-7%

There were informal face-offs between leagues in the late-19th century....

And those were viewed as the first World Series until the mid-20th century

The Tigers had the 6th pick in the 2006 draft....

And told Kershaw they were drafting him, that could have been the greatest pitching staff of all-time. Their rotation would have had 27.8 WAR in 2014 -- if their relievers combined for 2.6 WAR that would be the highest single-season pitching total ever

The only player to win the Heisman trophy twice....

Archie Griffin, '74;'75

FIFA began naming man of the match for every World Cup match in 2002. Messi is the all-time leader (11), Cristiano is second with 7. Third is....

Arjen Robben with 6, though Mbappe will probably pass him

Two ABA teams were dissolved, the Kentucky Colonels and the Spirits of St. Louis, their players were dispersed in a draft.....

Artis Gilmore was selected first overall, Moses Malone went 5th somehow

During the 1900s-1930s it was common for teams to use their best starting pitcher....

As a closer on occasion. Pete Alexander had 32 saves, Walter Johnson has 34 saves, Lefty Grove had 54 saves and once led the league, Ed Walsh led the league five times. Oddly there isn't evidence that using starters as relievers on off days increased their rate of injury.

NFL, NBA, and MLB all have similar labor shares of revenue....

At around 50%, though some have argued the MLB's is 55%

Moses Malone is the worst passer of the great players....

Averaging 1.3 APG, Dirk averaged 2.4. Also notable that Moses Malone never had a positive dBPM in his career and his career average was -1.5

Wes Unseld was Finals MVP despite....

Averaging only 9.0 PPG in the 1978 Finals

Highest career slugging percentage

Babe Ruth, 0.6897

For the ten years that Messi was on Barcelona and Ronaldo on Madrid....

Barcelona won seven league titles and Real Madrid won only two despite better Champions league performance

Other large BPM playoff improvers include.....

Baron Davis (+3.5), Tracy McGrady (3.3), Hakeem (2.3)

Highest single season slugging percentage

Barry Bonds, 0.863, 2001

Darrell Evans is one of the more underrated....

Baseball players, he was a 1B/DH/3B, played on the '84 Tigers, retired with 61.1 WAR and 414 homers, and quietly had a 9.7 WAR season in 1973

The English national team has never....

Beat the US in the World Cup, they have two draws and one loss.

In practice fat is about seven times as energy dense as carbs....

Because each gram of carbs is stored with 3-4 grams of water while fat doesn't need water

In 1978 and 1979 Adrian Dantley was on the Lakers which was problematic.....

Because he set up exactly where Kareem wanted to set-up. This was a problem for Dantley the majority of his career

The Tris Speaker trade in 1915 is a notable weird trade....

Because it was completely lopsided, the Red Sox lost Speaker to Cleveland but still won the World Series in 1916 and 1918. Speaker led the league in WAR in 1916 and could have made that Red Sox team an all-timer

Bosman Ruling 1995

Before this there was a fixed number of foreign players allowed on a team and clubs could prevent players from moving leagues even after their contract expired. Appealed due to EU's freedom of movement laws -- evidence suggests it has made international football more competitive and club football less competitive

Bill Sharman is notable for....

Being the first great free throw shooter, he's still 15th all-time in % at .883. Sharman was also a tough defender who often got into fights. He and Cousy were first team all-NBA guards for four years in a row between 1956 and 1959

Had 9.9 WAR in 1914, batting .370 with 75 stolen bases, was banned from the league at age 30 in 1920 for auto theft....

Benny Kauff

Only pitcher to allow 50 homers in a season

Bert Blyleven, 50, 1986

Glycemic index ranks foods based on their short-term impact on....

Blood sugar. High glycemic index foods include watermelon (103) and raisins (91) -- these foods are good post-workout

Who is the all-time leader in lowest swing% outside the zone....

Bobby Abreu (16.3%), Chipper Jones is nearby at 17.5%

Arguably the best player to never make the HOF, a 2B who is not Lou Whitaker.....

Bobby Grich, played on the 1970 WS Orioles as a rookie but wasted most of his career as an Angel. He retired with 69.1 WAR, led the league in homers and slugging in the strike-shortened 1981 season, and had a strong 13.2% walk rate

Last team to sign a black player (1959), worked out Jackie Robinson and chose not to sign him....

Boston Red Sox, they lost the pennant by 1 game in 1948 and 1949 (Robinson's first two seasons)

The reason why oWAR and dWAR don't add up.....

Both give the player credit for playing time (team doesn't have to use another player in that spot) and adding them double counts this credit

The 5-3-2 can be an effective system for a specific type of team....

Brazil used it in the early 2000s to great effect, it's based around having two wing-backs who can play as defender/attacking combos and control the flanks. Good for teams with strong attacking defenders, Brazil had Roberto Carlos and Cafu

Michael Adams of the Nuggets is notable for.....

Breaking the three point attempts number three times (1988, 1989, 1991), he shot 33% from three and peaked at 8.5 attempts per game

Graeme Obree

Broke the hour record and designed his own bike called 'old faithful' with which he could get more aerodynamic than any other rider

The all-time leader in sacks is....

Bruce Smith with 200, though its worth noting Reggie White has 198 and averaged 0.85 a game to Smith's 0.72 per game

The spitball was banned in 1920, but who was the last spitballer?

Burleigh Grimes, 1934

Who should count as a five-tool player? DiMaggio only stole 30 bases in his career, Ty Cobb never hit more than 12 dingers....

But DiMaggio once led the league in triples (and they didn't steal much in his era), Cobb once led the league in homers -- they make the cut

At rest the vast majority of your energy comes from fat....

But carbs produce ATP twice as fast so the more intense your exercise the higher percentage of your energy will come from carbs rather than fat

The Phillies stadium Baker Bowl (1904-1938) had a 40-feet wall in right field.....

But for the 1937 and 1938 seasons it was 60-feet, almost twice the 37-foot Green monster

Muscle is denser than fat....

But not that much denser, 1.06 KG/l or 0.9 KG/l

Patrick Ewing was a great player to build around....

But the Knicks could never field a well-rounded team because Ewing was the highest paid player in the league six times

Yaw axis is the axis of headwinds, the axis that pushes you and changes your horizontal direction. You'd think bike frames would be as slim as possible....

But thicker bike frames tend to do better along the yaw axis, note this is why triathlon bikes have larger frames because they were designed to do well in the Kona crosswinds

Bill Russell won the MVP in 1962....

But was second team all-NBA

A defense focused player has not won the Ballon d'or since.....

Cannavaro in 2006, and before that one has to go back to Matthias Sammer in 1996

Hideki Matsui has the second-highest....

Career OPS in Japanese history (behind Oh), Ichiro has the second and third best single season batting averages

The only player I can find with two absences in his career where his team's winning percentage changes by three standard deviations:

Chris Paul (2017, 2018) on the Clippers and the Rockets respectively

Who holds the record for single season receptions by a running back?

Christian McCaffrey, 116, 2019

The best pitching season of the deadball era....

Christy Matthewson, 1908, 10.8 WAR, 37-11 in 390.2 innings with a 1.43 ERA

In 1902 Connie Mack traded Nap Lajoie due to uncertainty about his contract (he had broken his contract to sign with an AL team and the reserve clause was being examined by the legal system).....

Cleveland renamed their team the Naps in 1903 in honor of Lajoie. The A's won the World Series in 1910, 1911, and 1913 -- they lost in 1905 and 1914 and they also finished second in the pennant three times. Lajoie led the league in WAR five times between 1903 and 1908, with Lajoie the A's probably would have won 5-8 World Series. Lajoie was purchased by the A's in 1915 and Cleveland renamed their team

Only a handful of pitchers throw over half of their pitches in the strike zone, the leader is....

Cliff Lee (55.0%), Verlander-Kershaw-Scherzer are all in the mid-40s. Dallas Keuchel is lowest at 37.6%

Mike Martz

Coach of the 14-2 2002 Rams, fan of onside kicks while winning, routes run in curved lines, Lions OC in 2006 but they fired him before their 0-16 season

In 1943 Sammy Baugh led the league in....

Completions, completion percentage, yards per punt, and interceptions

There are two broad types of basketball offenses:

Continuity (set plays and patterns) and motion (free-flowing but can involve general rules). Bobby Knight notably ran a motion offense based around back screens run on the opposite side as the ball handler

Before 1995 only European players....

Could win the Ballon d'or

Boxer who won three gold medals but never turned pro...

Cuban Teofilo Stevenson, turned down five million dollars to fight Ali

The highest all-time oRPM belongs to....

Curry (12.03, 2015), second is Russ (8.81, 2015), and Lebron (8.03, 2010)

While Curry was in college Loyola played Davidson with the strategy of double-teaming Curry on every possession.....

Curry finished the game 0-3 with three assists and Davidson won by 30

What player had 41.9 WAR at 31 but ended his career in 1970 because he refused to get traded?

Curt Flood

There are two types of air flow: laminar (smooth lines) and turbulent (rapid changes in pressure and flow velocity), you clearly want to maximize laminar flow....

Cycling is in between laminar and turbulent flow -- an F1 automobile is facing an air flow that is almost entirely turbulent

The most valuable franchises in different sports are relatively close to each other:

Dallas Cowboys (8 billion), Yankees (7 billion), Warriors (7 billion), and Real Madrid (6 billion)

Most fouls in a season

Darryl Dawkins, 386, 1984

In 1978 when the scoring title was on the line during the last game of the season....

David Thompsons scored 73 points and George Gervin scored 58

There is a tradeoff between pitchers who get swings and players who get lots of called strikes. For example....

Degrom has one of the lowest called strike percentages of any good pitcher (15.9%) but the highest swing% for pitches outside the zone at 36%

When you adjust rebounds for the number of missed shots in a game the best single season belongs to (numbers here normalized to 45 RPG).....

Dennis Rodman (19.1) in 1992 followed by Moses Malone (17.6, 1979), Bill Russell (16.9, 1961), Wilt (16.7, 1961), and Andre Drummond (16.6, 2018)

Ozzie Smith is 74th in career.....

Despite a WRC+ of 90, the next highest WAR for a player with a WRC+ less than 100 is Yadier Molina at 151

In soccer there is no correlation between winning percentage and....

Distance run on the field

Ronaldo took free kicks on Juventus when he was teammates with Miralem Pjanic even though Ronaldo has scored 14 goals on 289 attempts (4.8%) compared to Pjanic's 14/137 (10.1%). Some other great free kick takers are.....

Dmitri Payet (12 goals, 7.7%), Neymar (15 goals, 7.5%), and of course Messi (42 goals on 560 attempts for a 7.5%)

Jean Robic is the only cyclist to attack the leader on the final day....

Doing so in 1947 and winning his only TDF as a result

Dick LeBeau was a...

Dominant CB in the 1960s with the Lions (10th all-time in interceptions with 62). He became an influential DC, notably on the 2006 and 2009 Super Bowl winning Steelers, invented zone blitzes which create uncertainty about who is rushing but forces linemen to drop back in coverage

Pujols is the all-time leader in....

Double plays, he grounded into 426 in his career, Miggy is second sadly

The leader for called strikes is....

Doug Fister (21.3%) followed by Nola (20.0%) and Wainwright (19.8%)

Wilt Chamberlain led the league in field goal percentage nine times but.....

Due to his anemic free throws, West and Oscar have higher career true shooting percentages

Since UCLA's dominant run only two college basketball teams have gone back to back and none have won three in a row, who are they?

Duke (91, 92) and Florida (06, 07)

From 1967 to 1977....

Dunking was illegal in college basketball because of Kareem

In 1988 the top three in Ballon d'Or voting were all....

Dutch players on AC Milan (van Basten, Gullit, and Frank Rijkaard)

The all-time leader in dunks (which weren't tracked until 1997) is.....

Dwight Howard with 2,950, followed by Shaq (2,626) and Deandre Jordan (2,366)

Strength increases linearly with muscle....

Each pound of muscle contributes on average 8 pounds to a powerlifter's total

Most doubles in a season

Earl Webb, 67, 1931

Home Run Baker

Earned his nickname for leading the league in homers four years in a row between 1909 and 1912, retired with 96 homers, he had 9.3 WAR in 1912

For squat depth the depth of the hip socket is the most important variable. Those with shallow hip sockets can go deeper. The people with the shallowest hip sockets tend to be from....

Eastern Europe, these regions have the highest rates of hip dysplasia. The deepest hip sockets occur in Britain/Scotland and Western Europe more generally, note that people from these regions tend to do better at standing strength events like shot put

The best defensive season by a forward or guard according to RPM is...

Eddie Jones, 5.44, 2002

The all-time leader in sac flies is....

Eddie Murray (137)

The only pitcher in MLB history with more WAR than wins....

Eddie Smith, 4.2 WAR and a 4-17 record in 1937

Eddy Merckx won _____ stages in a Tour....

Eight in 1970 and 1974,

The NBA responded to the ABA by adding....

Eight teams between 1966 and 1971, the league went from nine teams to seventeen

The 2022 Nets were significant favorites (+240), their implied odds were 50% higher than the second-place team.....

Ended up winning 44 games and losing in the first round, it may be the worst showing by a team that highly favored

Between 1977 and 1984 the European cup was won by a.....

English club in seven out of eight seasons, the latest period of national domination since Spain won five in a row between 2014-2018

The worst player to be the highest-paid player in NBA history is without a doubt.....

Ernie DiGregorio, who led the league in assists and free throw% as a rookie, but went downhill from there. He played for the Buffalo Braves, was the highest paid player in 1974 and 1975 (his last season was 1978).

Very few humans have bilateral symmetry in their muscles, we also tend to have slight differences in joint connections and limb length....

Even highly trained squatters put more weight on one foot than the other. Legendary lifters like Lamar Gant and Naim Suleymanoglu both have clear asymmetries in their form

Earl Weaver

Famous manager of the 1970s Orioles, won the World Series in 1970. He is notable for arguing with umpires, eschewing small ball (his teams hit for power and rarely stole bases or bunted). Weaver also pinch-hit players more than almost any manager, spurring several rule changes as a result

There is no generalized speed of....

Fast and slow twitch muscles, some people's slow-twitch are likely to faster than other's fast-twitch

If not for wars Ted Williams probably would be either 2nd or 3rd in all-time WAR, Dimaggio and Bob Feller were also effected....

Feller probably lost 20 WAR which would move him from 61.4 (46th all-time) to 81.4 (17th all-time), Dimaggio lost 15 or so which would move him from 82.6 (35th) to 97.6 (22nd)

Most home run prone of the great pitchers....

Fergie Jenkins (0.97/9), Don Sutton (0.80), Randy Johnson (0.89)

Frank Lampard has the record for most premier league goals scored outside the box (41), he is also.....

Fifth in career assists and sixth in career goals

In 1960 the Pirates beat the Yankees in the World Series....

Following a Bill Mazeroski homer in the bottom of the 9th

The Netherlands did not qualify.....

For a World Cup between 1938 and 1974, six consecutive failures

Statistical significance is arbitrary....

For example the correlation between triples and runs scored is 0.2, statistical significance is only relevant when we don't have any prior about the relationships between variables

Prior to 1960 a lot of teams didn't have a pitcher rotation....

For example, Casey Stengel routinely saved Whitey Ford for games against strong competition

Baseball games were often called ties in the early days of the game because the stadiums had no lights and it got too dark....

For example, the 1909 Tigers had 10 ties

Tom Chambers....

Forgotten PF, he averaged 27.2 PPG and 11.2 win shares on the 1990 Suns

Some RBs who look over/underrated according to RYOE....

Frank Gore has no good seasons in the sample (-964 is the lowest value), CJ Spiller averaged an incredible 0.87 yards OE per carry despite splitting carries for most of his career

VO2 max is both quite hereditary and not that predictive of running performance, for example....

Frank Shorter (71.5) and Steve Prefontaine (84.4) even though Shorter's 10k is only two seconds slower than Pre's

The all-time leader in flyball percentage is....

Frank Thomas at 54.9%

In 1927 the Cardinals traded Rogers Hornsby for....

Frankie Frisch and pitcher Jimmy Ring. They lost in the World Series in 1928 and 1930, Hornsby may have swung both series

Juninho, the Brazilian midfielder, is widely considered the greatest.....

Free kick taker ever, he has 71 goals off of free kicks though we cannot know the percentage

Corners have become less effective over time.....

From 1945-1995 in the English league around 6% of corners resulted in goals, part of this is caused by the greater prevalence of outswinging corners which aim to retain possession

Raiders free safety Jack Tatum paralyzed a player....

From the neck down during an exhibition game

If one had to rank the great outfielders by defensive ability into tiers it would go as follows:

GREATS: Mays, Clemente VERY GOOD: Bonds, Tris Speaker, Al Kaline, Dimaggio SOLID: Trout, Yastremzski, Mel Ott, Ruth BAD: Cobb, Hank Aaron, Stan Musial TERRIBLE: Ted Williams, Frank Robinson Mantle and Griffey both were great early in their careers and shit at the end.

Home run leader of the deadball era

Gaavy Cravath, 119 career homers and hit 24 in 1915

The player with the greatest discrepancy between where they rank as a hitter and as a player overall may be....

Gary Sheffield, 26th in runs created, same career WRC+ as Pujols and 107th in career WAR

Highest k/9 innings in a single season is....

Gerit Cole, 13.81, 2020, only player to have over half of outs come from Ks, Randy Johnson's 13.41 is second

You calculated an 18% reduction in slugging and a 13% reduction in OBP for negro league players entering the MLB, Josh Gibson and Oscar Charleston move to....

Gibson is 11th all-time in OPS, Charleston is 26th with an OPS+ of 155 (by Willie Mays and Dimaggio), Oscar Charleston is the all-time leader in Negro League WAR at 48.9

wOBA was created by Tom Tango and outperforms OPS by....

Giving linear weights to every possible batting outcome

We switch from the creatine-phosphate system to....

Glycolytic system (preventing lactate acidosis) which lasts 2-5 minutes, we then switch to the aerobic system

Michael Jordan had the worst three point contest in history....

Going 5/30 in 1990

Describe Garrincha briefly:

Great dribbler, called the greatest amateur (he didn't have an agent and never trained), had bent legs, played RW, he was named player of the tournament in 1962

The least walk-prone of the great pitchers....

Greg Maddux (1.80), Christy Mathewson (1.56), Curt Schilling (1.96)

Most RBIs in a season

Hack Wilson, 1930

Jacques Anquetil believed that one should drink as little as possible while racing. He controversially.....

Had a child with his stepdaughter and married his stepson's ex-wife

There's quite a few times when a superstar demanded a trade, the team refused and they won the title....

Hakeem in 1992, Pippen in 1997, Paul Pierce and Kobe in 2007

There have been several times when a star demanded a trade, stayed, and won a championship....

Hakeem in 1993, Pippen in 1998, Kobe in 2007

The worst samples for % in team's winning percentage:

Hakeem, 1991 (+2.6 wins); Westbrook, 2014 (+3.7 wins); Dwayne Wade, 2007 (-1.6 wins); Adrian Dantley, 1985, (+1.7 wins)

The all-time lefty starting five is probably:

Harden, Tiny Archibald, Ginobilli, Bill Russell, and David Robinson

Joe Sewell, a shortstop who played between 1920 and 1933 is notable for....

Having only 114 strikeouts and 2,226 hits, in 1925 he had 204 hits and 4 strikeouts

Frank Howard has a case for the worst defender in history...

He averaged -2.1 dWAR per 162-game season and has a career -24.0 dWAR, note that Adam Dunn has -28.2 dWAR

Vince Carter tanked in 2005 so the Raptors would trade him....

He averaged 15.9 PPG and 3.3 RPG in Toronto and finished the season 27.5 and 5.9 with the Nets

We only have steals data for Jerry West in 1974, his final season.....

He averaged 3.6 possessions/100, tied for first in the league, note he was 35 years old this season

Jerry West is the all-time leader in NBA Finals points....

He averaged 30.5 PPG in the Finals, going 1-8. Ironically his 1972 win was his worst statistical performance, Gail Goodrich weirdly averaged 25.6 that series. He is the only player to win series MVP when his team lost, 1969.

Dave Stapleton has an interesting baseball-reference page....

He batted .321 as a rookie and had a decline in batting average every year after that

Don Nelson is the best coach to never appear in the NBA Finals:

He coach three different 55-win teams in three different decades: 1981 Bucks, 1992 Warriors, and 2003 Mavericks. He played in the conference semifinals 14 times and went 3-11. Also was notably fired from the Knicks in 1996, a team that did not take to his unique offensive style

It's unclear how good Joe Jackson would have been, when he retired at age 30 he had ____ WAR, ____ all-time...

He had 60.2, 28th all-time. At the time only Eddie Collins and Ty Cobb had better pre-30 careers.

Norm Cash is an outlier....

He hit .361 in 1962 and never hit above .286 in any other season

Hank Greenberg has an interesting career....

He led the league in homers four times, his 58 in 1938 was the highest single-season homer total behind only Ruth -- but he lost four prime years to WWII and finished with 60.6 WAR and only 330 homers. He probably would have around 80 WAR and 450 homers if not for the war

Mickey Mantle was not just one of the most three true outcome players of his generation (40.2% compared to Mays' 29% or Aaron's 26%) he was the most well-rounded.....

He led the league in homers four times, strikeouts five times, walks five times

Nick Foles 2013 season is one of the most confusing ever....

He led the league in passer rating and set a modern record for adjusted passing yards per attempt with 10.54

In 2007 Morten Andersen was 47 years old....

He made 25/28 field goals and was 24/24 on extra points

Bobby Richardson is probably the most over-honored player in baseball....

He made eight all-star games, finished second in MVP voting, and stayed on the HOF ballot three years despite the fact he retired with 6.0 career WAR. He was the starting 2B on the Yankees from 1955-1966

Curt Flood was a good player but maybe better remembered than he should be....

He may have missed the Hall, he retired with 36.3 WAR at age 31 and a WRC+ of 102, though he was a great defensive outfielder

Kareem averaged 28.8 PPG in his rookie season....

He plausibly could have scored 1,600 points in his first three seasons if he was able to leave UCLA after one season. This would give him over 43,000 points in his career

Bryce Paup won DPOY in 1995 with 17.5 sacks despite the fact....

He played on the other side of oft-double teamed Bruce Smith. Paup had over 10 sacks in a season only one other time in his career

Arvydas Sabonis was drafted 24th in the 1986 draft by the Trailblazers, could have been an interesting Blazers team if he was allowed to play -- they made the NBA Finals in 1990 and 1992. If Sabonis was eligible to declare for the draft....

He probably wouldn't have gone 1 or 2 (Len Bias was two), before Hakeem the highest drafted foreign player went 15th and Hakeem played college in the US. My guess is Sabonis would have gone 3-10, of these the Bulls at #9 is the most intriguing

Yao Ming is an underrated shooter...

He shot .833 from the free throw line and shot technical free throws for the Rockets sometimes

Cruyff is kind of an odd figure.....

He supposedly left Ajax for Barcelona because they did not vote him captain, said frequently that style was more important than winning, and had a special jersey in the World Cup with two stripes instead of three because he did not like Adidas

Brandon Weeden is the oldest player drafted in the first round...

He was 28

Bill Mazeroski is one of the game's most overrated players....

He was an early hall of fame inductee and a six-time all-star. When he retired he had only 30.9 career WAR, one season above 4 WAR, and a WRC+ of 97 in his best hitting season. He has the game 7 walk-off dinger in the 1960 World Series

Some fun facts about Al Davis:

He was owner and GM of the Raiders between 1966 and 2011, head coach between 1963 and 1965, and commissioner of the AFL in 1966. He sued the NFL three times and sided with the USFL in an antitrust suit.

OF Turkey Stearnes is probably the third best Negro League position player....

He's second in WAR at 48.5 and his adjusted OPS+ is 149 (41st all-time by Ralph Kiner and Jeff Bagwell). 1B Mules Sutton has an estimated OPS+ of 145 but is hurt by his defensive limitations

Connie Mack was known for massive rebuilds....

His A's won 99 games in 1914 and 43 in 1915. Mack traded Lefty Grove and Mickey Cochrane in 1934 and Jimmie Foxx in 1936

Charlies Gehringer had a very atypical age curve....

His age 28 season was the worst of his prime: he had his highest OPS at age 33, he had his best batting average at age 34, and hit the most homers in his career at age 35

Gary Payton was a good defender but not as good as people think...

His best three years are an average of +2.22, compare this to +2.19 for Manu Ginobili and +3.18 for Lebron

Chris Paul is an underrated defender....

His best three years average +3.34, compare this to +3.49 for Kawhi

Isaiah Thomas is one of the great playoff overperformers....

His career BPM is 2.6, his playoff BPM is 5.97

What positions in the all-time starting nine for baseball are debatable?

Honus Wagner v. A-rod (A-rod was much better defensively at SS than 3B) at SS and OF3 between Willie Mays and Ty Cobb, catcher is semi-debatable but it's probably Johnny Bench

Maybe the funniest contract in NBA history belongs to....

Hot Rod Williams, who signed a seven-year contract with the Cavs that made him the second-highest paid player in 1991 despite the fact he was the Cavs sixth man and never averaged more than 16 PPG

The highest elo rating for a national team ever is....

Hungary in 1954 (2230), followed by Germany in 2014, Brazil in 2022, and Spain in 2010

The most goals scored by a team in one World Cup is....

Hungary with 27 in 1954 (3.85 per game)

Of players in the statcast era with at least 5000 plate appearances the slowest average exit velo belongs to....

Ichiro at 82.9

The most interesting wrinkle of the Ruth to the Red Sox is a third team....

If the Philadelphia Athletics may have beat the Yankees in 1927 and 1928, since they won in 1929 and 1930 they would have won four in a row and would be considered one of the great dynasties

Kareem would be the all-time leader in blocks....

If they had been measured in his first four seasons. He led the league in blocks four times, he's currently 3rd all-time and is 641 blocks behind Hakeem (he would have needed to average a pedestrian 2.0 blocks per game in his four seasons to pass Hakeem)

I tried to estimate who was the 2nd best player on those 60s Celtics teams.....

In 1957, 1958, and 1960 I chose Cousy (Bill Sharman a close second). Between 1961 and 1966 it's Sam Jones. I gave it to Havlicek in 1969. In 1967 and 1968 I choose Bailey Howell, who may have been the best pure scorer that Russell ever played with (in 1967 he averaged 20 PPG on .512 when the league average was .441).

Another interesting soccer what-if involves a plane crash....

In 1958 Manchester United's plane crashed and eight players died including 21-year old midfielder Duncan Edwards, one of England's most promising players. The English national team won the World Cup in 1966, Edwards may have prevented their underwhelming performances in 1962 and 1970

It isn't often discussed how much better kickers have gotten over time....

In 1980 kickers made 29% of 50-59 yard field goals and 48% of 40-49 yard field goals. Today kickers make 80% of 40-49 yarders and 65% of 50+. A 50-yard field goal today is equivalent to something like a 37-yard field goal then

In 1959 players on average shot .756 from the line....

In 1999 they shot .728, a 4% reduction in efficiency over a forty year period

There is a long-term decline in top players' BPM....

In 2020 Anthony Davis was 6th in BPM at 8.00, in 1981 Julius Erving led the league at 7.38

In 1901 25% of MLB players were 6 feet tall....

In 2022 it's around 85%

Defensive player of the year by position type...

In 51 editions, the award has gone to a pass rusher 23 (45%), a linebacker 17 (33%), and a secondary player 11 (22%) -- no secondary player has ever won twice and neither Richard Sherman nor Darrelle Revis won

The Rockets were not the preseason favorite in 1994 or 1995....

In 94 it was the Knicks (+200) and in 95 it was the Suns (+350)

Deacon Jones has to be one of the more underrated players in NFL history, he led the league....

In sacks five times between 1964 and 1969, had 22 sacks in a season twice, is 4th all-time in career sacks (173.5), and has a higher sacks/game than those ahead of him -- 0.91 for Jones compared to 0.85 for White and 0.72 for Bruce Smith

For his career Kobe shot .412 from the field in the NBA Finals....

In seven NBA Finals appearances only 2002 and 2009 could be classified as good, and he played very poorly in 2000 (15.6 PPG on .367) and 2004 (22.6 PPG on .381), in his only game 7 (2010) he shot 6 for 24

What if Isaiah Thomas didn't turn his ankle in the 1988 Finals?

In the '88 Finals Thomas injured his ankle in game 6 but still managed to score 43 points, the Pistons lost by one point. Thomas struggled in game 7 (4/12 from the field) and the Pistons lost by three points

The four largest muscles in the body are all....

In the legs: quads, glutes, calves, and hamstrings -- in that order

When a player changes teams the variance of his plus-minus...

Increases by 30%, implying it is quite team dependent

Sadaharu Oh was a manager after his playing career, and did his memory a disservice by...

Intentionally walking players who were close to breaking his single-season home run record of 55 -- all three players were foreign born.

Princeton offense

Invented in the 1970s by Pete Carril at Princeton. It involves one player in the high post and four players outside the three point line. Players cut and set screens until an easy basket is found. It has the downside that its a slow and developing offense. It can be used to neutralize a more athletic team.

Mouse Davis

Invented the run and shoot offense, coached at Portland State in the 1970s, most influential non-DI or pro coach ever, gave WRs choice routes and one of the first to play four WRs at one time

Dunking was illegal in college between 1967 and 1977 because of Kareem....

Ironically the dunking ban was great for Kareem it forced him to perfect the sky hook

MPG is one stat that has been relatively constant throughout NBA history, between 1979 and 2012 the league leader.....

Is always between 39 and 43 minutes per game, and the top ten were between 36 and 40 minutes per game. Things have only changed in the last ten years.

80% of MHR....

Is the point at which most people struggle to breathe out of their noses

Training above 85% of max....

Is useful for short-term peaking but is probably suboptimal for long-term training

Great player hampered by a career 29% from three on 1,373 attempts and choice to retire at 32

Isaiah Thomas

Platooning is keeping two players of roughly equal ability and then starting them depending on the handedness of the starting pitcher.....

It can probably offer around 30-40 extra OPS points if done perfectly

For hitters BABIP is not as random as people make it out to be....

It has a correlation of r=0.4 from year to year, so in any year it's random but some players can have high BABIP for their careers without great speed

Wilks is one powerlifting metric which adjusts for weight, it has the downside that....

It probably underestimates middleweights. It's a 5th order polynomial which was designed to equalize across weight classes but this ignores the fact that more people are middle sized than are large or small

The problem with fade aways for big men....

It puts you out of position for the rebound and so its a less effective shot than it seems. This was a problem for players like Elvin Hayes, Karl Malone, and Patrick Ewing

An alternative to Wilks is allometric scoring....

It simply takes bodyweight^(2/3)

Huntington Avenue Grounds (1901-1911) is the largest ballpark in history....

It was used by the Red Sox and had a 635-foot center field

The pick and roll has been used throughout basketball history but....

It wasn't as effective in the 60s because it was harder to drive to the basket and it wasn't as effective in the 80s because most players couldn't shoot threes; it really became popular in the 90s when Stockton and Malone perfected it

The man on the back of the peloton faces more resistance than the man in the middle....

It's better to have someone blocking your wake

Supposedly Larry Bird learned all the dead spots in the Celtics court and would channel defenders towards them....

It's plausible, he averaged 1.7 steals per game at home and 1.5 per game on the road

As far as I can tell the best free kick taker is....

James Ward-Prowse who has scored 17 goals on 99 attempts

The all-time leader in pitches swung at outside the zone is out very own....

Javy Baez (45.1%), Vladimir Guerrero leads good players at 41.1%. Guerrero also has the lowest called strike% of any player (7.2%)

Name the player who had the elite hitting season, while given the year. 1994, 1972, 1980, 1969....

Jeff Bagwell (205 WRC+), Dick Allen (199), George Brett (198), Willie McCovey (194) --

Examples of really overpaid players....

Jermaine O'Neal was the second highest paid player in 2010, Rashard Lewis was the second highest paid in 2011 when he averaged 11.7 PPG for the Wizards.

Aside from Walton, some impressive WOWYs are:

Jerry West, 1963 (+26.6 wins, 27 games); Elgin Baylor, 1962 (+19.6, 32 games); Rudy Gobert, 2018 (+19.5 wins, 26 games). West also has one of the lowest samples (+2.8) but I think it evens out.

The worst season in MLB history is....

Jim Levey, 1933, -4.0 WAR. He also had -3.1 WAR in 1931.

This player holds both of the top two seasons for grounding into double plays

Jim Rice, 35 and 34 in '84 and '85 respectively

Jim Brown's 1963 season is an honorary 2,000 yard season....

Jim had 1,863 yards in 14 games

This player had 369 career strikeouts and 361 homers

Joe Dimaggio

An enormous what-if in soccer is the 1978 World Cup....

Johan Cruyff retired before the cup and Netherlands made it to the Finals without him but lost

Finished with 68.6 WAR despite missing three years for WWII, 10th all-time in slugging+

Johnny Mize

This player threw back to back no hitters in 1938

Johnny Vandermeer, he was only 23 years old at the time, had 5.5 WAR in his best season

Usage rate is defined as every time a player takes a shot, allows a turnover, or goes to the free throw line. Number one all-time is....

Jordan at 33.26%, followed by Kobe at 31.86%. Magic has the lowest number of the great players at 22.26%.

The highest free throw percentage in a season belongs to....

Jose Calderon, .9805, 151 out of 154

Some unfortunate champions league teams:

Juventus has a record of 2-7 in the final and have lost their last five finals, Atletico Madrid have made the final three times but never won

Around 40% of distance running prizes are won by the....

Kalenjin, who make up only 10% of the population in Kenya

Along with getting low the most important principle of aerodynamic form is...

Keeping your back such that there are no hinge points which interrupt the flow of air around you

Bill Veeck wanted to make an all-black team during WWII...

Kenesaw Landis shot this down -- John McGraw tried to sneak black players on his team claiming they were Cuban

The top four pitches which are ahead of Hamels' changeup are....

Kershaw's fastball, Kershaw's slider, Verlander's fastball, and Scherzer's slider

Maybe the weirdest football strategy fad....

Kickers not wearing shoes in the 1980s.

Sam Jones and Scottie Pippen both have six NBA Finals where they were the second-best player. The third most ever is....

Kobe (3). Parish was better than McHale (2) in 1981. Kareem (2) was better than Magic in 1980 and worse than Worthy in 1987 and 1988. Parker is better than Ginobilli (2) in 2003.

Which WR has more tackles than dropped passes?

Larry Fitzgerald, 39 vs 29

Between 1903 and the 1950s the.....

Leagues were not allowed to trade with each other, one potential way to estimate the relative quality of the leagues is the percentage of players who were extremely young and the percent who were extremely old.

Sam Wyche

Led Bengals to a Super Bowl in 1988, originator of the no-huddle offense, the following year the Bills' defense constantly faked injuries to try and keep up with the Bengals. Wyche also would bring more than 11 men into a huddle and then switch at the last moment, spurring a rule change

Strength and running speed decline at about the same rate....

Little decline until you turn 40 and then 10-15% between 40 and 50

Players with high WAA for their WAR....

Lou Boudreau, SS notable for his 4.4% K percentage, is 50th in WAA and 104th in WAR. Larry Walker, who batted .360 or higher between 1997 and 1999, is 39th in WAA and 56th in WAR

Closest members to the 500 home-run club....

Lou Gehrig, Fred McGriff 493

When playing elite centers Bill Russell....

Lowered true-shooting by 5.7% and volume by 4.5 points per game. When Russell joined the Celtics their defense improved by 5.1 PPG

Two of the most underrated players in MLB history had the exact same career....

Luke Appling (White Sox, 1930-1950) and Arky Vaughan (1932-1948, Pirates) were both strong defensive shortstops who were good but not elite hitters, hit for average over power, lost productive seasons to WWII and finished with around 72 WAR. They are 44th and 45th in career WAR but would be in the low 30s if not for WWII

The Reggie Miller Pacers notably....

Made the conference finals six times in eleven years between 1994 and 2004, they had a record of 1-5 (made the finals in 2000). The Pacers are 1-7 in the conference finals as a franchise

Criticisms of Malone and Stockton's game.....

Malone had a low release point and so often took shots from angles, Stockton wasn't an aggressive point guard and so Utah often forced shots to prevent a shot clock violation

Both Charlton and George Best played almost their entire careers on....

Manchester United, they only managed to win two English cups but won the European cup in 1968

The only players to break the transfer record twice are:

Maradona (84, 86) and Brazilian Ronaldo

All-time leader in ABs/HR

Mark McGwire, 10.61

Williams and Bonds are one and two in walk rate, who is third?

Max Bishop, 2B from 1924-1935, for the Philadelphia A's, he was underrated in his time because he batted only .271, one of three players with a walk rate above 20%, 37.6 WAR

FIFA began naming the top three players at the World Cup in 1982. The only player to win twice is:

Messi (2), Ronaldo notably won in 1998 and finished second in 2002. The only other players to finish top three twice are Maradona and Modric

Around 80-85% of soccer penalties are goals, some notable penalty kickers are....

Messi (81%, pretty mid actually), Ronaldo (86% and all-time leader in penalties scored), Lewandowski, Hazard, and Kane are all around 88-89%

Spain tried to get _____ to play for their national team....

Messi, this may have been the greatest national team ever assembled

The only players to win three Ballon d'Ors besides Ronaldo and Messi.....

Michel Platini (83, 84, 85), Cruyff (71, 74, 75), and Marco van Basten (88, 89, 92) -- Beckenbauer deserves a mention for winning two while finishing second twice

The top three players in four-year WRC+ peak are as you'd expect (Bonds, Ruth, Williams, 1-2-3), players higher than you might expect are....

Mickey Mantle is 5th (201), Frank Thomas is 8th (185), Shoeless Joe Jackson is 17th (179), Jeff Bagwell is 18th (177), Johnny Mize is 22nd (174), Frank Robinson is 16th (179)

All-time leader in Michigan rushing yards...

Mike Hart, 5,040, just ahead of Denard Robinson's 4,495

The five monuments are in order...

Milan San-Remo (flat, often won by sprinters), Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Liege-Bastone-Liege, Tour of Lombardy (uphill finish)

First good Latin American player, came into the league in 1951, led the league in HBP in nine of ten consecutive seasons, had 8.2 WAR in his best year, is the oldest player to get on base in a professional game drawing a walk at age 77

Minnie Minoso

The top goalscorer in World Cup history is....

Miroslav Klose (16 goals), followed by Ronaldo (15) and Gerd Muller (14 goals, 13 games). Klose is known for twice disallowing his own goals by tattling on himself, and for playing well in international play despite being a good not great club player

Zico is the best Brazilian player of the 1970s and supposedly has the record for....

Most free kicks scored at 101

Henneman's size principle

Motor units are recruited from smallest to largest (smallest motor units are slow-twitch), using slow-twitch muscles first and moving to fast-twitch as needed minimizes the amount of fatigue in a given activity

An odd thing about Dirk is he gets less efficient when he....

Moves closer to the basket: .474 (16+), .468 (10-16), and a terrible .404 from 3-10 feet

There are two types of hypertrophy....

Myofibrillar and sarcoplasmic: myofibrillar adds more actin and myosin to the muscle cell while sarcoplasmic mostly increases how much water is stored within the cell

Order the leagues by when they started their drafts: 1936, 1947, 1965.

NFL, NBA, MLB

Only player to lead the league in points and assists in the same year...

Nate Archibald, 1973, 37.0 PPG and 11.4 APG

Nellie Ball

Nelson's style was unique. He was among the first to use point forwards (Paul Pressey and Marques Johnson), which allowed him to play two score-first guards. He also employed a non-offensive threat center who would set up on the outside thus pulling a shot-blocking center from the court

Ron Clarke is notable for...

Never medalling in the Olympics despite setting WRs in the 5000 and 10000

Matt le Tissier is a Southampton player from the 90s who is notable for....

Never missing a penalty, 24 for 24 on his career

If the New Orleans Jazz had held onto Moses Malone things may have been different....

New Orleans Jazz had the rights to Moses Malone for a period but decided to get rid of him. Enamored with the possibility of pairing Gail Goodrich with Pete Maravich the Jazz traded their first round picks in 1977 and 1979. As it turned out they were the worst team in 1979 and the Lakers drafted Magic Johnson number one. If the Jazz had kept onto Moses Malone they probably wouldn't have had the worst record in 1979, and so Magic would fall to the team with the second worst record -- the Chicago Bulls. This implies that in 1984 if things were exactly the same Jordan would have ended up on a pretty good Dallas Mavericks team (43 wins in 1984)

Some notable transfers:

Neymar to PSG (240 million, 2017), Maradona to Napoli (19.4 million, 1984, easily broke his own record), Christian Vieri (73 million, 1999, broke the record by 49%) -- worth noting that most

The all-time leader in RYOE (rushing yards over expectation) is....

Nick Chubb (821 yards) followed by Jamaal Charles (717), Aaron Jones (664), and Marshawn Lynch (562) -- Peterson would be low 600s if he had retired at his peak. An elite RB offers an extra 0.3-0.4 yards per carry above expectation

Whiz Kids

Nickname for the 1950 Philadelphia Phillies which lost in the World Series despite fielding one of the youngest teams in baseball. Despite expectations the team was uncompetitive in 1951. One explanation for the team's failure is their unwillingness to integrate

100,000 dollar infield

Nickname for the infield of the early 1910s Philadelphia A's. Second baseman Eddie Collins, first baseman Stuffy McInnis, shortstop Jack Barry, and third baseman Home Run Baker. 100,000 (3 million in today's money) was their combined market value. Their team won the World Series in 1910, 1911, and 1913; in 1913 they finished top four in team WAR

Should a correct squat have a perfectly vertical bar path?

No, because you are lifting a system (you plus the barbell) and since you are part of that system and most of your weight is behind the barbell initially the center of mass will change as you lift. Your bar path should be more vertical the higher the weight

The fastest average fastball season belongs to....

Noah Syndegaard (98.9, 2016) followed by Degrom (98.7) and Alcantara

Least home run prone of the great pitchers....

Nolan Ryan (0.54), Roger Clemens (0.66), Greg Maddux (0.63)

The Mets traded two all-time aces within six years.....

Nolan Ryan (1971) and Tom Seaver (1977)

The most walk-prone of the great pitchers....

Nolan Ryan (4.67/9), Randy Johnson (3.26), Steve Carlton (3.16), Bob Gibson (3.10)

Strikeout single season record in the modern era

Nolan Ryan, 383, 1973

Stressful inputs are the shape of a negative parabola....

Non-stressful inputs are a logarithmic curve

The Arsenal team of the early 2000s is notable for....

Not losing the entire 2004 season (26-12-0) leading to the 'untouchables' nickname. They won the Premier League in 2002 and 2004, never won the Champions League. Arsenal has won the premier league 13 times but never the champions league

Lefty O'Doul led the league in OBP in 1929 (7.4 WAR) despite...

Not playing a full season until he was 31 years old, he transitioned from pitcher to outfielder

Bears QB Bobby Douglass...

Notable for rushing for 968 yards in 1972, he couldn't throw for shit and the Bears sucked

Off a fair catch on a punt you can choose to attempt a field goal immediately with the last example...

Of a made field goal coming in 1976 -- there's no rushers so it is easier than a normal kick

Running back contracts are a rare example of pro athlete's compensation declining in real terms....

Of the ten largest RB contracts the most recent was signed in 2011 (Peterson) and five of the ten were signed in the 1990s

Pros and Cons to David Robinson by offense and defense:

Offense: -Great speed/athleticism creates easy buckets -A pretty good shooter, about .450 on long midrange in prime years for which we have samples -- defenders have to respect it - Biggest flaw is he doesn't have any real post moves and his FG% declines by 4% in the playoffs Defense: -Great rim protector but also fast enough to get out in space -Tends to overplay players intentionally because he has the speed to recover when beat. This sometimes left him vulnerable to counters, may explain why he struggled with Hakeem

When we produce force with our muscles we are generally producing torque rather than linear force, because of this attachment points can make a great difference....

One study found that patellar tendon moment arms varied from 4 cm to 6 cm in humans, meaning the people with the 4 cm attachments need to produce 50% as much force

What do Robinson-Hakeem and Duncan-Garnett have in common?

One was paid fairly and one was underpaid. Robinson was the highest paid player in the league twice, Garnett seven times. In 1995 Hakeem was 39th in salary, in 2004 Duncan was 27th.

Between 1958 and 1986 how many guards won MVP awards?

One, Oscar Robertson (1964)

Roger Staubach led the league in passer rating index five times despite....

Only playing eight full seasons, he didn't play his first full season until age 29 because he served in the Navy

Transfers could happen in the earlier days of football but....

Only when the club really wanted it to happen, note for example Cruyff's transfer from Ajax to Barcelona in 1974

Tex Winter

Originator of the triangle offense, coached at Kansas State in the 60s and later was an assistant under Phil Jackson

Leaders among TS%+ among the great players...

Oscar Robertson (115), Kareem (114), Wilt (113)

Aerobic output and efficiency are independent variables...

Oscar Svensson had the highest VO2 max ever tested at 97.5, he had a 74 without any serious training. His efficiency actually got slightly worse as he trained.

All-time leader in passing y/a by a wide margin at 9.0

Otto Graham

Yiannis Kouros still owns the course record at Spartathlon by....

Over an hour, he set the record in 1984 the year's second race

There is no benefit to drafting when you're running at a....

Pace of 5:30 or slower

The two best teams pre-Super Bowl are....

Packers (9 championships) and Bears (8 championships), Lombardi won five NFL championships between 1961 and 1967 as well as the first two Super Bowls

The 1984 draft has more than just the obvious counterfactual....

Patrick Ewing almost declared in which case he would have gone 1st and a Hakeem-Drexler Blazers team may have put up a fight against Jordan's Bulls. A second notable event is a pretty good Mavs team (led by Mark Aguirre) passed on Charles Barkley at 4 (he was drafted 5th) and John Stockton at 15 (he was drafted 16th). The Stockton pick is even odder considering their second best player (24-year old Rolando Blackmon) was a SG and they took a SG over Stockton

This player invented the jump shot

Paul Arizin

All-time leader in interceptions

Paul Krause, 81.

The best pitching season of all-time is....

Pedro Martinez, 1999, 11.6 WAR; followed by Steve Carlton's 11.1 WAR 1972 season

Brazil never lost a match in which both _____________ played.....

Pele and Garrincha

Least strikeout heavy of the great pitchers....

Pete Alexander (3.81), Greg Maddux (6.06)

The last player manager in baseball (84-86)

Pete Rose

Last player coach in baseball

Pete Rose, 1984-1986 Reds

Is WAA better than WAR? Don't we care how much better a player is than other serviceable players than how much better he is than minor leaguers? The great player with the lowest WAA is....

Pete Rose, his 79.7 WAR is 40th all-time while his 29.1 WAA is 139th all-time. 63.5% of his career value came from being better than a minor leaguer

Bill Walton's WOWY scores are.......

Phenomenal, his 1978 season (68-win pace with, 34-win pace without) is 5.1 standard deviations away from being average the highest in the sample. He also has a +12.7 win swing when he missed time in 1976

Michael Jordan is 1-9 in the playoffs without Scottie Pippen...

Pippen is 6-4 when Michael left

Connie Mack was a great believer in pushing.....

Pitchers to their limits, Pete Alexander led the league in IP in six of his seven seasons as an A

Smallest city with an MLB team

Pittsburgh, 350,000

There is implicit evidence that West was an elite player, in 1963 he missed 24 games. In the games he played in the Lakers.....

Played at a 56-win pace, in the games he missed they played at a 34-win pace

One part of Bird's game that isn't emphasized is he averaged 10.0 RPG for his career despite....

Playing with two other big men (McHale and Parish), on a smaller lineup he may be remembered as one of the best rebounding forwards ever

Women have shorter taper periods than men....

Probably because men have a higher physiological ability to train more

Hank Aaron only drew walks in 10.1% of at-bats and has an anamolously low .374 OBP for such a great hitter, what modern great parallels him....

Pujols, has a .374 OBP and a 10.5% walk rate

Middle distance times are predictive of....

Race times even up to ultramarathon, ie the ultramarathon runner with the fastest 1500 is favored to win

Other players with low WAA for their WAR....

Rafael Palmeiro (57.9%, 59th to 122nd), Derek Jeter (57.2%, 57th to 114th), Sam Crawford (53.6%, 48th to 94th)

Of the ten most penalized NFL teams in history, seven are.....

Raiders teams, they're led by the 2011 Raiders

The most interesting football almost-trade is the 1989 Marino trade to the....

Raiders, Marino had the worst season of his career in 1989 and Al Davis and Shula verbally agreed to the trade. The 1990 Raiders had a good defense, could have been a scary team

The only player to win AP player of the year three times....

Ralph Sampson, also the last player to win the award multiple times. Kareem had a chance for three were it not for Pete Maravich in 1970.

Leader in batters hit

Randy Johnson, 190

Which player was killed by a baseball?

Ray Chapman, 1920

The Golden Team....

Refers to Hungary's national team between 1950 and 1956, the most dominant national team to never win a World Cup (they lost to West Germany in 1954). They were led by Puskas and forward Sandor Kocsis. They were disbanded by the Hungarian revolt of 1956. Historically important also because Hungary, though not a part of the Soviet Union, was communist and strongly allied with the Soviets and thus were supposed to be internationalists. The Hungarian national team was a rare source of nationalism

All-time leader in strikeouts

Reggie Jackson, 2,397

Kleiber's law (1930)

Relates metabolic rate to size, logarithmic line with slope 0.75 (there is some debate about the exponent in part because the mechanism is not well understood). For example, if you had the metabolic requirements of an ant you would have a BMR of 12,500 calories and if you had the metabolic requirements of an elephant your BMR would be 600 calories

The clean and press was the only lift in every Olympics until it was....

Removed in 1972

Only player to lead the NBA, NCAA, and ABA in scoring?

Rick Barry

Top five in Fangraphs WAR pitchers

Roger Clemens (133.2), Cy Young (131.5), Walter Johnson (117.1), Greg Maddux (116.7), Randy Johnson (110.4)

This player is second all-time in WAR/162 among retired players behind only Babe Ruth.....

Rogers Hornsby, 9.1

4th all-time in career goals is....

Romario with 755. He won the Golden Ball and World Cup playing for Brazil in 1994, and came close to winning the Champions League that same year playing for Cruyff's Barcelona (they lost in the final to AC Milan)

The champions league leaders in goals scored are:

Ronaldo (140, 0.77), Messi (129, 0.79), Lewandowski (91, 0.81). Also noteworthy is Ruud van Nistelroy (56, 0.77)

We only got advanced stats in 2016, but since then.....

Ronaldo shoots more often (5.63/90) compared to other strikers (most are in the 3-4.5 range), and with less success (12% conversion rate) -- compared to 19% for Lewandowski, 16% for Kane, 30% for Haaland, and 21% for Mbappe

The best players to never win a Champions league are.....

Ronaldo, Real Madrid won in 2002 and he joined the club in 2003 and never played in a final. And then Zlatan and Buffon who are tied for 16th in champions league appearances with 124, Zlatan never made a final but Buffon made three and lost all three. Roberto Baggio who never made a final

The single season dunk record belongs to.....

Rudy Gobert with 306 in 2019

Only eleven players have had a WRC+ above 200 for a full season, name them.....

Ruth, Bonds, Williams, Hornsby, Mantle, Cobb, Gehrig, Judge, McGwire, Bagwell, Frank Thomas

The 4-4-2 was the most common formation in the 90s and early 2000s, played by both Wenger's Arsenal and Ferguson's Man United. It has the following strengths and weaknesses:

STRENGTHS: Simple, easy to understand, because roles are so clearly defined you can have more specialized players, two pure strikers makes for effective crosses. Teams usually had a pure striker and a second striker who was part playmaker (Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp on Arsenal) WEAKNESSES: Fewer passing options, because there are two four-wide lines things can get stiff and crowded, less positional flexibility

Eddie Collins is the all-time leader in...

Sac bunts with 512, once stole 81 bases in a season

Most strikeouts in a perfect game?

Sandy Koufax and Matt Cain, 14

In 1990 Karl Malone...

Scored 31.0 PPG on .562 shooting

In 1991 Michael Adams did not make the all-star team despite....

Scoring 26.1 PPG with 10.5 assists

Not only did Jerry West go 1-8 in NBA Finals he also finished.....

Second in MVP voting four times but never won, he should have won in 1970 when he finished second behind Willis Reed

Oddly Lenny Wilkens finished....

Second in MVP voting in 1968 without making an all-NBA team

The Cubs traded Lou Brock in 1965 for pitcher Ernie Broglio and ended up finishing.....

Second in their division three out of four years between 1969 and 1972, had they not traded Lou things may have been different -- they had two aces in Bill Hands and Fergie Jenkins as well as a great 3B in Ron Santo.

Clutch batting isn't real but clutch pitching....

Seems to be, pitchers can choose to exert more effort during highly leveraged scenarios.

The elite player with the most red cards is easily....

Sergio Ramos, 26. Zlatan is second among elite players with 13

There were only four....

Sets of basketball cards released between 1946 and 1970 and so player's "rookie" cards often appear several years into their careers

Most times fouled out of a game

Shawn Kemp, 115

Players with significant negative playoff BPMs.....

Sidney Moncrief (-1.7), Bob McAdoo (-1.5), Gary Payton (-1.4), Karl Malone (-1.1)

The Dimaggio-Williams trade in 1947 is fascinating even if it may not have changed any WS results, Yankee stadium was built for Ruth and had a short right-field wall...

Since Williams was also a leftie he would have been more valuable in NY, the two owners agreed to the trade over drinks one night but Red Sox owner got cold feet in the morning and argued that rookie Yogi Berra should be added. DiMaggio and Berra (77.3 combined WAR) for Williams (67.7) would have been somewhat fair when you consider Williams would have been even better at Yankee stadium

Tampa 2 was designed to solve a common problem in cover 2.....

Since each safety covers half the field in cover 2, running a receiver in the middle of the field is often effective. Tampa 2 drops a linebacker back to cover that soft zone. It goes back to the Steel curtain Steelers (with Jack Lambert) but is called Tampa 2 because it was the defense used by the Bucs in the 90s

Don Coryell was the first to think of the route tree, a system which assigned numbers to each route. List the routes in it:

Slant, stop/comeback, fly/go/seam, curl, out/in, corner/post (same route just opposite directions, corner goes towards corner and post towards center of the field)

NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis) is quite predictive of inherent inclination towards obesity....

Some people's NEAT responds drastically to a caloric surplus and some people's NEAT doesn't respond at all

There is considerable debate as to who invented total football...

Some say Rinus Michels and some say Cruyff

Contact% per swing isn't that important....

Stanton and Judge both have historically low values, both hovering at 68%

The fastest average exit velo ever belongs to...

Stanton at 93.9, followed by David Ortiz at 93.1

In 1972 he had a 27-10 record compared to 32-87 for the rest of his team...

Steve Carlton

The last pitcher to throw 300 innings was.....

Steve Carlton in 1980, Verlander was the last to throw 250 in 2011

The all-time leader in pickoffs is....

Steve Carlton with 146 (2.78 per 100 innings), that's why he had so many balks. 2nd and 3rd are Andy Pettite (97, 3.1/100) and Mark Buehrle (87, 3.25 per 100). Note that over 1% of Pettite and Buehrle's career outs came from pickoffs

Most career pickoffs

Steve Carlton, 144

Woody Hayes

Successful Ohio State coach, fired in 1978 for punching an opposing player, noted for his 10-year war with Bo Schembechler between 1969 and 1978 when they went 5-5

Jesse Owens did not....

Surprise the Germans, the second place finisher was also a black American in the 100, 200, and high jump (note that Mack Robinson, Jackie's brother finished second in the 200); the Olympics were awarded in 1931 before the Nazis were in power

All-time leader in OBP

Ted Williams, .482

Under Drew Brees the Saints were a top five offense....

Ten times, the defense only got good in his final seasons.

The all-time leader in TFL is....

Terrell Suggs at 202 (0.83/game), but it's worth noting a). They only began measuring in 1999, and b). JJ Watt is second with 195 (1.29/game)

A lot of innovative teams could have won they just didn't push hard enough....

The 05 Suns and the 09 Magic were built around threes but their best shooter didn't shoot that much (Nash was 5th in 3PA, Reddick was 6th). On the 98 Pacers Mullin and Miller took a combined 7.7 3PA, Harden alone took 13 3PA at his peak

The Ruth-Red Sox what-if is overrated....

The 1920s Red Sox wouldn't have been good enough to contend even with Ruth. If the Yankees replaced half of Ruth's value with his salary they may have won in '27 and '28 anyway (they would have had 104 wins in 1927 and 96 in 1928)

The shift was first used in....

The 1920s against Cubs hitter Cy Williams. Williams led the NL in homers four times including 1927 when he was 39 years old

The winningest team not to make the playoffs

The 1942 Brooklyn Dodgers, 104-50

5-man rotations were used early in the game but did not gain supremacy over 4-man rotations until....

The 1970s when the Dodgers fielded five quality starters, between 1900 and 1930 rotations were a complete shitshow, teams had everything from 2-6 starters. The five man rotation developed more out of injury than anything else, and in the 40s-60s teams played with a four man rotation but ended up using five starters due to injury

Zone blocking was created in _______ by....

The 1990s by Alex Gibbs of the Broncos. He argued blocking schemes dominate RB play -- Broncos finished top five in rushing yards in seven of nine years between 1995 and 2003 with four different RBs

The Jordan Bulls probably got their toughest challenge from....

The 1998 Pacers, after falling down 2-0 Reggie scored 13 points in four minutes in game three and hit a game winner in game four. The Bulls won a close game 7 88-83

By national elo rating the best match ever played is....

The 2010 final between Spain and the Netherlands

Albert Pujols reaction time is in....

The 66th percentile, reaction time is unimportant for baseball hitters

The 1931 AL pennant is interesting for the Pythagorean discrepancy....

The A's won 107 games and the second place Yankees won 94 -- not a close race. The Yankees had a Pythagorean record of 100 wins compared to the A's 97. The Pythagorean was +3 and the actual was -13

Baseball is the one sport where one league has won a lot more than the other....

The AL has won 67 WS compared to only 51 for the NL

The 1926 World Series was played between the Yankees and....

The Cardinals. During game 7 the game was 3-2 Cardinals with the bases loaded for the Yankees in the 7th inning. Pete Alexander came in to pitch and finished the game. The Yankees lost on Babe Ruth being thrown out trying to steal second

Two teams that would have most benefited if the MLB playoffs were changed in 1950 in imitation of the NBA:

The Cleveland Indians finished second six times between 1951 and 1959, an interesting team because they didn't have a superstar. Another team is the Milwaukee Braves (Warren Spahn, Eddie Matthews, and Hank Aaron) which won the pennant in '57 and '58 but finished second five times between 1953 and 1960

The Astros were named...

The Colt 45s between 1962 and 1965

The shotgun offense was first used by....

The Jets because Joe Namath was so immobile, it was notably used by the 1975 Cowboys. The 2007 Patriots became the first team to use it on over half of plays in the modern era.

The 2002 Kings-Lakers series is interesting because:

The Kings were up 3-2 and some thought game 6 was rigged (the Lakers shot 40 free throws, average in a game was 18). The series also complicates Webber's legacy, he averaged 24.3-10.9-6.3 in the series and was the second best player after Shaq and ahead of Kobe

1977 is probably the most balanced season in NBA history....

The Lakers led the league with 53 wins

The two major exceptions to the salary cap are:

The Larry Bird exception (you can resign a player who has been on your team for a while) and the mid-level exception (you can sign an additional player if they make below-average salary)

Barry Sanders was a great player but in 1997....

The Lions signed him to a deal that was a full 15.8% of the cap, ensuring they wouldn't be good for a while

In maybe the most interesting trade in baseball history the Reds trade Frank Robinson in 1965....

The Orioles won the World Series in 1966 and 1970 (in 1970 they beat the Reds). The Reds had 23-year old Pete Rose and 24-year old Tony Perez, they were two years away from acquiring Johnny Bench. It's actually not as lopsided as it appears because the Reds traded Orioles' minor assets into three solid rotation players. The trade would have prevented the Orioles victories in 1966 and 1970 however.

What is the oldest team never to win an NBA championship?

The Phoenix Suns (1968) followed by Utah Jazz (1974)

The 1906 World Series was played between the White Sox and the Cubs...

The Sox won despite the fact that the Cubs had won 116 games that year (anchored by Evers, Tinker, Chance, and Mordecai Brown) and the Sox had won the pennant with the lowest batting average in the league (.230). The 1906 Cubs team was 116-36, equivalent to 124 wins in a 162-game season

The 1969 Kareem coin flip was between the Bucks and the Suns....

The Suns could have been scary good, in 1971 with Connie Hawkins and Dick van Arsdale they won 48 games without Kareem

Is OKC not trading Harden the greatest NBA what-if ever?

The Thunder would have three future MVPs all 23 or under, that Thunder team may have prevented the Warriors dominance and almost certainly would have stopped the KD to the Warriors superteam

Won 22 titles in 72 years, who are considered the Yankees of Japan?

The Yomiuri Giants

In 1964 the NBA got a pension after....

The all-stars told the commissioner two hours before the game they wouldn't play without one. The players were divided with Tommy Heinsohn and Bill Russell against playing and Wilt for playing

Cole Hamel's changeup is...

The best changeup of the modern era, and the fifth most successful pitch ever in terms of runs created

Marty Schottenheimer

The best coach never to play in a Super Bowl, he's sixth all-time in wins at 200 but went 5-13 in the playoffs. Had a philosophy based around conservative pass offense and aggressive defense

Masaichi Kaneda

The best pitcher in Japanese history, played between 1950 and 1969, he won 400 games, is the all-time leader in strikeouts, and had a career ERA of 2.34

It's not possible to run 200 meters all-out...

The first 100 meter split in Usain Bolt's 200-meter was 9.96 which would not be one of the top fifty times all-time

Masanori Murakami

The first Japanese player to play in the majors, doing so in 1964. He was sent on loan to gain experience in the minors but played so well he was pulled up (something neither team expected). Ultimately Murakami chose to return to Japan following contract controversy. Hideo Nomo would become the second in 1995

The flex offense was used by the 90s Jazz and the 2002 Maryland team that won a national title....

The flex offense involves a wing in the corner, two guards outside, and a center in the low-post. The center screens for the wing who cuts inside, if there isn't an open look the guard screens down for the center who pops outside and the guard moves to the corner where the offense resets

Unlike other sports the number of goals per game has been constant over time.....

The lowest Premier league number is 2.45 per match in 2007 and the highest is 2.85 in 2022 -- only a 16% difference. Since 1962 every World Cup has been between 2.2 and 2.97 goals per match

Mike Trout was drafted 25th but was projected higher than that in most mock drafts....

The most interesting team that may have drafted him is the Astros at 21, the Astros won the World Series in 2017 and 2022 (lost in 2019 and 2021) this could have been an all-time team

Aaron Rodgers has a career record of 12-10 in the playoffs, but in nine of his ten playoff losses.....

The offense scored 20 or more points

Rick Barry was the first player to dispute....

The reserve clause doing so in 1967 three years before Curt Flood

The 1988 Olympic team could have won...

The team had David Robinson, Danny Manning, and Hersey Hawkins. Coach John Thompson chose his Georgetown point guard over Tim Hardaway -- Steve Kerr and Mookie Blaylock also missed the team

The 1982 Denver Nuggets are notable for having the best offensive and the worst defense in the league....

The team was led by Alex English, Dan Issel, and Kiki Vanderweghe all of whom averaged 21+ PPG

The 2006 Cardinals are the 1987 Twins' strongest competition for weakest World Series winning teams ever.....

Their 83-79 record is the 70th best record in franchise history, five of their eight starters had an OPS+ below 95. What do the Twins and Cardinals have in common? They both beat the Tigers

The 2010s Clippers team are probably the best team to never make the conference finals....

Their elo rating peaked in 2015 (1743, about 55th all-time). They won 51 or more games five seasons in a row (2013-2017)

The 1993 Knicks won 60 games despite the fact that....

Their offense was 24th out of 27 and their second scoring option was the mediocre John Starks (19 PPG on league average efficiency at his peak)

There's no .400 hitter today and there's no player who even has a .400 BABIP....

There hasn't been a .400 BABIP since 2002 at .404. Rod Carew had .408 in 1977, the highest since 1945. If you look at career leaders Joey Votto is 5th at .354 and Cabrera is 10th at .346

Between 1922 and 1956...

There were no perfect games

Bob Pettit is one of the hardest NBA greats to evaluate because....

There's almost no footage of him, some of the best footage we have is from the 1962 all-star game. His defense in particular is tough to evaluate considering he played on average defensive teams for most of his career

Jordan has a seemingly bad sample in 1994 -- the Bulls won 57 games with him in 1993 and 55 in 1994 but....

They also acquired Steve Kerr in the offseason and had rookie Toni Kukoc (who was 25) -- the two finished fourth and sixth in team win shares. Jordan has a +19.8 win, +2.24 SD impact in 17 games in 1995

The mid-80s Rockets team is an underrated NBA what-if....

They beat the Lakers in 1986 to make the NBA Finals, in what was cast as an upset but was actually a 4-1 walloping. This was only Hakeem's second season. In 1987 Sampson got injured, they traded their best guard (John Lucas) and lost their second best guard (Lewis Lloyd) to a cocaine suspension

Some facts about baseball in Japan:

They didn't have free agency until 1993, players rarely change teams. The top players make 5-7 million dollars,

One wrinkle of the Rick Barry ABA move in 1968 is that his team lost the NBA Finals the year before....

They had a strong second-option in 25-year old Nate Thurmond and a future 20+ PPG scorer in Jeff Mullins. The Warriors team may have won a title or two in the early 70s

The 1998 Seattle Mariners went 76-85 despite having Randy Johnson, A-Rod, Edgar Martinez, and Ken Griffey in 2001....

They lost A-Rod, Johnson, and Griffey but managed to go 116-46.

The early 70s Vikings are the best team to never win the title....

They lost in 1970, 1974, 1975, and 1977. They actually peaked before acquiring Tarkenton in 1972. They reached an elo of 1758 in 1970, with a defense built around Alan Page and Carl Eller, with safety Paul Krause (81 INTs). In 1970 they allowed 10 TDs in 14 games (opposing QBs had 6 TDs and 28 INTs)

Offensive linemen were underpaid in the 1980s, but did GMs realize this?

They may have known and took advantage of this cultural norm

The Utah Jazz have their name because....

They moved from New Orleans

Post-race ice baths make you recover faster but that's only because...

They reduce inflammation which simultaneously reduces the stimulus for adaptation

Stern vetoed the Chris Paul trade in 2011, but its not clear the Lakers would have even been good....

They traded away their 2nd best player (Pau) to the Rockets and their third best (Odom) to New Orleans. Kobe's last great year was 2013 so they only had a two-year championship window. The more interesting part of the trade is how much Pau would have elevated the 2014 and 2015 Rockets

In the XYZ formation the best and tallest receiver is the 'X' and plays on the weak side. The Y is either tight end or slot and Z is the flanker who lines up on the same side as the tight end (slot lines up between TE and flanker). Elaborate more on flankers:

They usually line up a couple yards behind the line of scrimmage to avoid being jammed, they're usually smaller and are often undersized deep threats (Desean Jackson, Isaac Bruce, Reggie Wayne)

The 90s Supersonics made the conference finals in 1993 and the Finals in 1996, they played the SOS defense....

They were one of the first teams to switch on everything (because it decreases ambiguity), their defense was built on attacking ball-handlers, pushing them towards uncomfortable spots on the court, and double-teaming unpredictably. The team incredibly had a 20-6 record against Hakeem (they once beat Hakeem's Rockets 11 times in a row between 1994 and 1997)

The 1983 76ers may be the most overrated great team....

They won 65 games and went 12-1 in the playoffs but a). Beat a James Worthy-less Lakers team in the Finals and b). Lost in the first round next year to the Nets despite not losing any of their great players

Their strongest competition in never winning a champions league is 2012-2020 Juventus....

They won Serie A nine years in a row, they lost in the final in 2015 and 2017 and made it to the final four five times

The 1970s Celtics easily could have been a dynasty....

They won in 1974 and 1976. They traded Paul Westphal in 1975, he ended up being the best player on the Suns in 1976. They won 68 games in 1973 but Havlicek got injured.

2004-2010 Chelsea is one of the best teams to never win a premier league:

They won the premier league three times (2005, 2006, 2010) and finished top three eight years in a row (2004-2011), they lost in the 2008 final but made it to the semifinals six times.

The rule of thumb is that steroids allow you to build 20-30 more pounds of muscle than can be built without steroids....

This corresponds to 160-240 pounds on to your total -- steroid's great advantage is actually the speed and ease with which one can build muscle

In 1905 19 players died playing football...

This led to rule changes including legalizing the forward pass

The 1974 Reds were close to a one for one trade for George Brett sending away Tony Perez....

This trade definitely swings the 1985 Royals series, and could have prolonged the Reds dynasty -- they would have been favored in 1977-1980

A major what-if is imagining Lew Alcindor signing with the ABA in 1969....

This was a serious possibility. For one, Kareem did not want to live in Milwaukee. The NY Nets had the first pick in the ABA draft and Kareem was from NY. The ABA planned to give Kareem a one-million dollar check right off the bat to swing things even more, but commissioner George Mikan decided not to at the last moment (for reasons unknown).

The NBA and ABA were in merger talks in 1970 but....

This was delayed by an antitrust suit filed by the player's union (which Oscar Robertson was head of) and delayed the merger until 1976.

Julius Erving was interested in coming to the NBA for the 1973 season. He tried to sign with the Hawks where Pete Maravich played.....

This was problematic because a). The NY Nets felt they owned him, b). The Bucks not the Hawks had his NBA rights. If Erving had chosen to sign with the Bucks the move may have been allowed. The Bucks won 60 games that season, if Erving joined one can only imagine how dominant that team would be.

The Nets offered Julius Erving to the Knicks in 1977....

This would have been an interesting team -- they had still solid Earl Monroe and 25-year old Bob McAdoo. If we assume Erving adds 10 wins they would have won 50 games in 1977 and 53 in 1978. This also may have switched the '80, '82, and '83 Finals -- the Celtics probably would have taken their place in the Finals in those years

In 1972 the Chicago White Sox had a....

Three man rotation, their three starters started a combined 130 games. Their ace Wilbur Wood set a live ball era record with 376.2 innings. Wood averaged 347 innings per year between 1971 and 1974

Roy Campenella won ____ MVPs....

Three, even though he had only two seasons above 5 WAR. He was overrated but the rest of the players on the 50s Dodgers were not, in all likelihood he was seen as the NL Yogi Berra who was himself overrated

What team is the all-time leader in pitcher MVPs?

Tigers with five: Hal Newhouser (44, 45), Denny McLain (68), Willie Hernandez (84), Verlander (11)

In 1935...

Tigers won World Series, Lions won NFL Championship, and Red Wings won the Stanley Cup

It's unclear what makes your body shutdown during intense exercise but lactic acid is not the answer.....

Tim Noakes' has the 'central governor' theory that your mind subconsciously makes your body shut down to prevent long-term damage from oxygen deprivation. Different people's central governors may intervene at different times and one thing EPO appears to delay the onset of the central governor

Maybe the most interesting MLB what-if trade is Bonds....

To the Braves in 1992. The Pirates feared losing Bonds in free agency in 1993 (they did, to the Giants) and considered trading him. Jim Leyland talked them out of it. The Braves won the World Series in 1995 but lost it in 1991, 1992, 1996, and 1999. One downside of this trade is that it may have prevented the Braves signing Maddux in 1993 free agency

In studies pressing motions react....

To volume better than deadlift/squat, for example bench/OHP react better to 3+ sessions per week whereas squat improvement had no statistically significant difference between two and three sessions per week

In the 1980s 200 American men ran under 2:20 in the marathon....

Today only around 50 do

The average NBA player in 1965 was 6'6''.....

Today the average NBA player is 6'6''

Three Michigan players have won the Heisman...

Tom Harmon (1940), Desmond Howard (1991), and Charles Woodson (1997)

In 1996 George McCloud of the Mavericks....

Took 678 three-point attempts, a record that would not fall until 2016. He shot a very respectable .380 that year.

Jason Giambi is very quietly a....

Top 75 hitter ever, he's 56th in career runs produced but 203rd in career WAR. It doesn't help that he retired with 440 homers and that his best skill was drawing walks

In 1954 the Yankees and Orioles pulled off the largest....

Trade in MLB history, 17 players. It's almost impressive how inconsequential this trade was, Don Larsen (3rd starter on several title teams) was the only notable player

Laurent Jalabert is notable for....

Transitioning from being a sprinter to being a climber, he won the green jersey in 1992 and 1995 and the polka dot in 2001, 2002.

EMG evidence of bench press suggests that....

Tricep activation is not higher for close-grip than medium-grip, and that pec activation is similar for 70% and 100% of 1rm but tricep activation increases greatly

All-time leader in doubles

Tris Speaker, 792

In 1997 Jordan made more than....

Twice as much as the second place Horace Grant, in 1999 the highest salary fell from Jordan's 33 million to Ewing's 18 million

The World Series winning Twins had a regular season total of -2.1 WAA and -20 run differential. They had only one player with 4 or more WAR. They hadn't made the playoffs in sixteen years, the Twins made the playoffs ___ times between 1971 and 2001....

Twice, they won the World Series both times

In 1984 Marino set the records for passing yards, TDs, and passer rating all in the same season. He threw for over 5,000 yards and only....

Two other QBs had more than 4,000

In the 1992 NBA season no player got more than....

Two triple doubles, the only time this has happened.

Second best Michigan defensive player...

Ty Law: a five-time Pro Bowler, 53 interceptions, best defensive player on the 2001-2004 Patriots

Studies have found that elite powerlifters and untrained lifters differ very little in their.....

Type I-type II distribution

4-3-3 formation

Used first by Ajax and the Dutch national team, then by Cruyff's Barcelona, and finally under Klopp and Pep. It has the advantages of creating triangles which make for easy passes. It's the ideal system for rotating: the outside defenders can move up into the midfield, and the wingers can drop back into defense. It has the downside that it requires well-rounded players who can both attack and defend

Almost all of the best pitchers have an above-average fastball velocity, the exceptions are....

Wainright (90.3, 15th percentile) and Grienke (91.8, 34th). Kershaw, Scherzer, Verlander are 64th, 86th, and 92nd percentile respectively

Most strikeout heavy of the great pitchers....

Walter Johnson (5.34/9, quite high for his era), Randy Johnson (10.61), Pedro Martinez (10.04)

What team had success between 1969 and 1980 despite trading their first round draft pick every year

Washington Redskins

It's not easy to tell an older baseball player's defensive ability but we can approximate....

We can determine range by percentage of balls fielded and sure-handedness by number of errors, for example Brooks Robinson was near the top of 3B in both range factor and fielding percentage

In 1980 only one NFL player weighed more than 300 pounds, in 1966 Alabama went 11-0 and their heaviest player....

Weighed 223 pounds

Basketball-reference now has preseason odds dating back to 1985, the biggest title favorites.....

Were all Warriors teams (2017-2019), peaking at -168. Second is the 1997 Bulls (+100), the 2004 Lakers (+140), and the 2011 Heat (+175)

During the 1904 TDF the top four....

Were all disqualified for skipping sections

During the early 2000s either all four or all five of the best teams....

Were in the Western conference, (Lakers, Spurs, Mavs, Kings, and sometimes the Trailblazers)

Abner Doubleday was named the sole inventor of baseball in 1907....

When Albert Spalding and the NL commissioner convened the Mills commission to determine the origins of baseball, in truth baseball is a descendant of the British games of rounders and cricket

Post system

When Japanese players want to make the move to the MLB all MLB teams can bid for exclusive negotiating rights with the player. Yu Darvish has the highest fee in history at 51.7 million dollars, the fee is given to the Japanese team. This system hurts Japanese players since they are usually signed for less money

In 1965 Sports Illustrated released an interview before game 5 of the ECF....

Where Wilt criticized coach Dolph Schayes

Dean Smith ran the four corners offense...

Where players stand on each corner of the court and the fifth player runs up and down the middle, they once stalled seven minutes of an ACC championship game that way, the NCAA did not have a shot clock until 1985

Sky had their riders try and ride negative split time trials....

Which is suboptimal in terms of expected time but offers more flexibility and less risk

Some players whose four-year WRC+ peaks are lower than you'd expect are....

Willie Mays is 19th at 177, Hank Aaron is 15th at 180, Trout is 14th at 180. Trout's four-year peak is 180 even though his career average WRC+ is 170 (6th all-time)

The best player in any sport to be traded twice in his prime....

Wilt Chamberlain

Rebounds fell from 73 per game to 53 per game in the 1960s (a 27% reduction), it's probably reasonable to reduce Wilt/Russell's rebounding numbers by 30% considering rebounds averaged around 45 for the rest of the NBA. In which case they would be....

Wilt would be 2nd at 16,750 and Russell would be 6th at 15,135

All-time single season MPG leader

Wilt, 1962, 48.5

The 1970s Warriors are notable for being the first team to....

Win a title without a strong offensive center, their starting center Clifford Ray was only 6'9'' and was 7th in shot attempts

Tony Phillips is the best baseball player never to....

Win an award of any kind (no all-star games, no gold gloves, no MVP votes). He played from 1982-1994, amassed 46.6 WAR, played a wide variety of positions, he was an above average hitter and fielder, played on the '90-94 Tigers, and never had more than 5.2 WAR.

Johnny Unitas once had a 47-game streak....

With a TD pass, a record unbroken until Drew Brees

Mario Cippolini set a record in 1999 when he....

Won four stages in a row

Eddie Collins is vastly underrated even though he....

Won six World Series, the most of any player who was never a Yankee, though to be fair he did not play for his 5th and 6th rings on the '29 and '30 A's

Abede Bikila

Won the marathons in 1960 and 1964, he had a auto accident in 1969 and was paralyzed, he competed in archery and table tennis at the disabled Olympics

One odd quirk of specificity is that if you train at the same time every day....

You will perform better in races that are at that time

The more advanced of a lifter you are the slower....

Your one rep max should be

The slowest and fastest pre-pitch clock era pitchers were....

Yu Darvish (24.9) and Aaron Nola (24.2), the fastest by far was Mark Buehrle (16.7). Meaning if they both threw 100 pitches a game pitched by Buehrle would be about 14 minutes faster than one pitched by Darvish

Only three Japanese players have appeared in more than two all-star games....

Yu Darvish, Ichiro, Shohei

There are diminishing returns to extra sets per muscle group and most studies find....

Zero or negative benefits to doing more than six sets per muscle group during the same workout

Wes Unseld is notable for....

a). Being a 6'7'' center, b). Being on one of the worst NBA champions ever (1978 Bullets 44-38), c). Averaging only 0.7 blocks per game as a center, d). Winning MVP as a rookie in 1969, e). Couldn't run very fast but was a phenomenal outlet passer

The 1984 draft could have turned out significantly differently....

a). Chicago had serious trade offers notably Mark Agguire for the number three pick straight up, and b). If Patrick Ewing had declared he would have gone one. Jordan may still have gone third but Houston probably doesn't win those two titles with Ewing instead of Hakeem. The 1993 won 60 games, they may have won a title with Hakeem instead of Ewing.

In 1984 the Trailblazers took Sam Bowie number two despite the fact that....

a). He had foot injuries and they had just lost a white center to foot injuries six years earlier, b). He averaged just 10.5 PPG his Junior year at Kentucky

The problems with PER are that.....

a). It cannot be translated in simple english into any real world concept, b). The only defensive stats it includes are blocks and steals which can be misleading

The Russian system of weightlifting emphasizes two things....

a). Load variability, b). Time under the bar (which implies that most sets are not very heavy)

Reasons there may be no player-coaches today

a). There are controversies about how much that player plays, b). It may be too much work for one person, c). You have to fire the person from both roles when you only want to fire them from one

The late-90s, early-2000s Blazers are a fun team for several reasons.....

a). They were built around two past their prime former stars (Sabonis, Pippen) and a young headcase (Rasheed), b). In 1999 their top five players were all between 11 and 14 PPG, c). They made the conference finals in '99 and '2000 and even took the 2000 Lakers to 7

Dave Debusschere is interesting for a number of reasons

a). Youngest player-coach in history at 24 with the Pistons (1964-1967), b). He pitched for the White Sox in 1963 and threw a shutout, c). He retired from basketball in 1974 (not injured) at the age of 33 after his best statistical season while playing for a team that had won in '73 and was a title contender in '75, d). He became commissioner of the ABA and presided over the merger