The NFL season has come and gone, and I am happy to say that I enjoyed this one more than any other in the past. It was not only because I cheered on a new team, but it was because I understood and appreciated the game so much more than I did before. For that, I can at least partially thank A Few Seconds of Panic by Stefan Fatsis.

You can practically hear a hamstring rip

Fatsis got the opportunity to go through training camp and the preseason with the Denver Broncos. While he may not have lined up behind center like George Plimpton in Paper Lion, Fatsis certainly managed to give an in-depth and real account of what it means to play professional football.

Given his background in soccer as a youth, Fatsis decided to continue down the kicking route, lining up field goals under the tutelage of Jason Elam. But just getting there was tough enough. Apparently, kicking a football isn’t as easy as it appears. And neither is punting. Or even merely dropping the ball down to punt. Stefan’s journey is almost overwhelming when he describes how much there is to interpret, understand, and execute when it comes to the simplest of tasks on the field.

But this book is about much more than just kicking. Everyone and everything is seemingly connected on the field and in the locker room. You follow the trials and tribulations of fledgling backup quarterback Bradlee Van Pelt, the comeback of a veteran lineman like Adam Meadows, or the never ending struggle to keep up with Demetrin Veal.

Fatsis goes even further to shed light on head coach Mike Shanahan, who was known to run one of the most strict regimes in the entire sport. From the playbook to the boardroom, no stone is left unturned.

The ultimate goal of the experience seemed to have been to kick a field goal in a live environment. With the rush coming and nerves frayed. While Mr. Fatsis may have felt panicked in this very moment, his documentation of the experience, through hilarious anecdotes and intricate detail, will leave you a smarter, more sophisticated, and more appreciative of a fan.

Serena Williams recently ran into some trouble after advancing into the U.S. Open semifinals against Kim Clijsters. Being two points from elimination in the second set, Serena double faulted and unleashed a tirade upon the line judge that ruled the foot fault, vowing to take the ball and shove it down her throat (to put it lightly). She was subsequently penalized, resulting in a lost match point and early tournament exit.

While it obviously prevented Serena from triumphing in the tournament, it might not have hurt her literary career. Already offering up her autobiography earlier this month, Serena now had the perfect opportunity to make a few final changes, bringing on rage expert John McEnroe for a tidy foreword for the newly re-titled On the Line (And Down Your Throat): A Story of Love, Lies, and Line Judges.

Just be sure not to piss her off at the book signing.

I consider myself a fairly knowledgeable fan of all sports, but for some some sports above others, I may have been a late bloomer. Lacking a football team in Los Angeles doesn’t really help get behind the sport, and digging one layer deeper to college football is even tougher. Also take into account that I went to Cal State University Northridge at a time when their football program was defunct (although it did once exist once upon a time and was coached by John Elway‘s pops).

Slowly but surely, I am warming up to those sports I have neglected in the past. Pro football is a necessity if one is to have any chance of a good supplemental income via fantasy league winnings. College football has become more fun as well with the prevalence of my USC alum of a significant other. In retrospect though, all I ever really needed was to read Dixieland Delight by Clay Travis.

For those unfamiliar with Clay, he is a lifelong University of Tennessee fan who has his own fancy popular blog on FanHouse. Once upon a time, he decided to travel through his lands, attending games at each school within the Southeastern Conference (SEC). This leads one to assume that each SEC school takes their football seriously, and boy was he right.

Travis (yes I’m now using his last name, which is a first name, thus confusing and all the more reason to never trust people with two first names) chronicled the games, the rivalries, the tailgating scenes, and the people as a whole. He went far and wide to prove that LSU Tigers fans smell like corn dogs, Florida Gators fans all wore jean shorts, running into ‘Bama Bangs around every turn. Throughout the book, you got an amazing feel for the land, the people, and their traditions. While it may be a testament to actual good writing, it may well have also been the intense atmosphere that he was describing. Every stadium was full, always in bedlam after big plays, and always having a good time. The fans were intensely proud, yet still inviting and kind. The SEC was depicted as a brotherhood, complete with its sibling rivalries but also its familial love. The reader gets the sense that this is what America is all about.

Football aside, Clay (yes, switching back again) explains the universal truths of sports fandom. On the topic of referring to the team as we, he writes:

I asked my dad why everyone was using the word we, which heretofore I’d only heard applied when the speaker himself was actually involved in a pursuit. After all, I was not a team member and neither were any of the other men sitting in the lower-bowl end zone of Neyland Stadium. ‘Because,’ said my dad, ‘this means so much to most people here, they want to make themselves a part of it.’

Clay also talks about his grandfather, a former UT player, whose fandom literally affects his health:

My grandfather watched the games with such ferocious intensity that his doctor was afraid he might have a heart attack.

Blurbs like these strike emotional chords and give you a taste of what being a fan is all about.

In addition, after each chapter, there are mini-chapters that essentially read like blog posts. They range anywhere from mini history lessons to rankings of the hottest women of the SEC. This even further helps the book be more accessible than it already is to fans of any team or sport.

If you’re like me and still fail to see what all the fuss is about with college football, pick up a copy and dive in. It will actually get you interested in the broader scope of college football for a change and make you want to go out and be a part of it, especially down South.

After owning the book for a couple of years now and much delayed reading, I finally got a chance to enjoy James Surowiecki‘s The Wisdom of Crowds. Not sure why it took me so long to get around to it. I definitely picked it up and started reading on multiple occasions, only to get sidetracked and ultimately starting from the beginning the next time I gave it a shot. And while it has been a few years since the original publication of the book, pretty much everything inside withstands the test of time.

On the surface, it’s a non-fiction work presenting many psychological and economic topics and theories. Come to think of it, this may have been what kept me away for a while, since I was on a fairly heavy fiction binge. Time to break the habit sooner or later, I suppose.

Surowiecki argues throughout that a group’s collective decision making is better and more accurate than it’s individuals, no matter how smart those individuals are. When groups act together, they typically have the greater good in mind and collaborate to produce more accurate, effective, meaningful information and results.

So how does any of this cross over into the world of sports? Well, the book is chock full of examples, stories, and anecdotes that strengthen the argument, provide counterpoints, and just serve to entertain.

NFL Decision Making

As wise as crowds may be, sometimes they act against logical, conventional wisdom. Tradition certainly plays a part in this, and it’s as true in the NFL as anywhere else.

Surowiecki cites, as an example, Super Bowl XXXVI. The St. Louis Rams were favored over the New England Patriots. Being critiqued were the conservative, yet conventional play calls by head coach Mike Martz. Martz kept opting to kick field goals when faced with 4th down situations. In the early going, the Rams got 3 points this way, but failed to convert a field goal in another opportunity.

David Romer, a University of California-Berkeley economist, actually devised a method of analyzing the best 4th down strategy.

He had figured out the value of a first down at every single point on the field

Based on the field position of the Rams when they kicked field goals, the expected values of going for it on 4th down were greater than their chances of kicking the field goals.

Obviously, this fails to take many factors into account such as momentum, but those variables aside, football was reduced to a science. A science that the masses have yet to embrace. Slowly but surely, a system such as this one could be adopted. The same revolution occurred in baseball with Billy Beane and Moneyball, so why not football too? Even when the crowd is wrong, you can trust that they’ll eventually get it right.

Cooperation Problems in Soccer

While crowds truly can be collectively wise, if they are not working together, little is accomplished. This is the crux of the problems with Italian soccer. In what is arguably the greatest take on the matter that I have ever heard, Surowiecki explains that it’s “myopic self-interest” that is to blame for the excessive flopping, whining, and injury-faking that soils Serie A.

It would be in their best interests to simply play a fluid, entertaining game and put on a good show for the fans. After all, they’re the ones buying the tickets and apparel and paying your salaries. It would be mutually beneficial for two teams to not be so self-interested to try and squeak out a 1-0 win, collapsing like a pile of bricks after the slightest semblance of contact so as to get closer to the final whistle.

The Bowling Bubble

We’ve all heard of stock market bubbles in the news. But what exactly are they? Surowiecki explains them as “textbook examples of collective decision making gone wrong.” And it just so happens that bowling, one of America’s pastimes, was the focal point of such a bubble some decades ago.

Bowling took off in the 1950s, as companies such as AMF shifted their focus from war efforts to leisurely ones. The automatic pinsetter was an instant success, and shortly thereafter, bowling alleys were the place to be. The word on Wall Street was that “the popularity of the sport would grow as fast in the future as it did during the fifties, [and] that soon every American would be bowling two hours a week.”

Ask yourself how often you bowl now. Or even when the last time you bowled was. Yeah – looks like that may have been a bit of an overstatement. Shortly after the initial hype, bowling stocks went back down to normal, and the bubble had burst.

Beacons of Hope

Come to think of it, all the sports references in The Wisdom of Crowds were fairly negative ones. They didn’t do much in reaffirming that collective decision making is indeed beneficial. By now your interest must be piqued and surely you want a copy of your own to read. While this was a somewhat tough review to write merely focusing on sports, the book is essential. It is an idea book that belongs on your bookshelf that you will be leafing back through for years to come.

James Surowiecki does an excellent job grabbing and holding the readers attention. From the sports stories I mentioned to others that range from weight-judging contests to how to clothing retailer Zara is gangster, there’s something for everyone. Rest assured that there are plenty of stories and examples of how this thesis works, not just the contradictions I mentioned. You’ll believe in the wisdom of crowds so much that you’ll dive right off a bridge since everyone else is doing it. Well, maybe not, but you’ll at least figure there’s gotta be some pennies down there or something.

For those unaware, they’re somehow going to try to make a Moneyball movie. Being a huge nerd fan of the book, I’m intrigued and curious to see how they adapt a book based largely on statistics into a feature length film.

For those even more unaware, they figured it would make sense to cast Brad Pitt as Oakland Athletics manager Billy Beane. What are the odds that we get a shirtless montage featuring Pitt reminiscing about Beane’s athletic, uber-prospect days?

It is now being reported that comedian Demetri Martin will be cast as assistant GM Paul DePodesta. As a result, I have become convinced that this movie cannot be real. Or that it will continue to spiral out of control.

If it’s the latter, here’s how the rest of the cast could look like:

John Turturro as J.P. Ricciardi

Having served as Director of Player Personnel under the Beane Administration in Oakland, Ricciardi took the Toronto Blue Jays‘ General Manager position the following year. Sure, he remained buddy-buddy with his former employer, but baseball is a business and everyone is a potential snake in the grass. Ricciardi and Turturro both have the looks to match.

Ed O’Neill as Steve Phillips

This works better if you imagine a Blue Chips-era sports-related Ed O’Neill, but with Al Bundy-like ineptitude. Former New York Mets General Manager Steve Phillips was viewed as somewhat of a buffoon by the A’s, showing the propensity to draft unproven hype players like Scott Kazmir who totally did not fit the Moneyball mold. And that’s outside of his notable Mets acquisitions such as Mo Vaughn, Bobby Bonilla, Pedro Astacio, Jeromy Burnitz, etc…

Jason Segel as Nick Swisher

Swisher was the coveted price of the 2002 draft, much how Segel is now one of the coveted comedic actors in Hollywood. On top of that, both are considered pretty good at what they do (Swisher at getting on base, Segel as a successful investor in I Love You, Man) and can still be their eccentric, fun-loving selves.

Jonah Hill as Jeremy Brown

The “fat bodied catcher” who could start a fire by running to first in courderoys. Who else embodies that spirit but Jonah Hill? He’s a sight for sore eyes, but he gets the job done on screen. Jeremy Brown eventually slimmed down a bit but recently retired, not having managed to stick around at the big league level. Speaking of which, what’s Hill been up to these days? If he ever sheds those pounds, his demise may be imminent.

Any other suggestions on who could play what? Who can we get to play the hot piece of road beef alongside all the players? Let me know your thoughts.

For me, the baseball season doesn’t start with Spring Training like for so many aficionados of our national pastime. For me, it all begins when my copy of Baseball Prospectus comes in the mail.

Yes, Amazon Super Saver Shipping took long enough, but it has finally delivered Baseball Prospectus 2008 to my front door. After countless (fine, maybe only like 5 or 6) nights of asserting my nerdiness and falling asleep analyzing statistics and projections, my analysis of the Tome/Bible/(insert sacred writing synonym here). I am officially ready for the baseball season.

For the uninitiated, Baseball Prospectus is a (fairly) advanced tool for statistical interpretation of baseball. It has become increasingly popular in our post-Moneyball world, and many a privy fantasy baseball GM has used such analytical tools to their benefit.

Granted, the Tome provides above and beyond the statistics any normal fantasy player would need. It is written more from an analytical scouting perspective than your standard fantasy preview magazine making random stat projections for the upcoming year. However, there are many stats in here that can help us common folk out.

The Tome utilizes two things called the Breakout and Improve rates, which are the odds that a player’s statistics will improve 20% or at all respectively. This tool is used for both hitters and pitchers. It’s definitely fun to look at an already established player like David Wright or someone and still see them with high rates, envisioning what other greatness they might accomplish this season.

For hitters, I also like to look at the EqAVG, which tries to translate batting averages from other leagues (such as various levels of the minors or overseas leagues) into what they would be in the majors. To me, this is a crucial tool in evaluating the incoming rookie class or any other prospect who gets called up. There are plenty of guys who hit .360 with 30+ homeruns in the minors only to fail to reach anywhere near such numbers in their careers ever again. Hell, I might be able to push the Mendoza line in the rookie leagues, but I sure as hell will never get a major league hit.

For pitchers, I’m a big fan of the BABIP and STUFF statistics. BABIP refers to the batting average of balls in play. Many pitchers suffer from either extreme bad or good luck. If you see a spike in BABIP one year, odds are it will stabilize to around .290-.300 as it is for most pitchers. This definitely helps me try to understand the previous year’s pitching stats and determine what was a fluke year or who had bad luck. The STUFF statistic is a mathematical formula for rating a pitcher’s demonstrated skills depending on his age. Once again, a good tool for evaluating rookies, mid-season call-ups, or any other prospects.

There is a multitude of other statistics and rating methods within the pages of the Tome. Personally, I use the aforementioned ones. I highly suggest you check out this fine source of information for yourselves.  DO IT!!!