Monday Medley

What we read while busting out our old vuvuzelas….

• Gene Wojciechowski chronicles his surprisingly exhausting experience at Coach K’s fantasy basketball camp.

• We like stories about smart atheletes who are intellectually engaged: so naturally this piece on Ross Ohlendorf was quite enjoyable. Speaking of smart atheletes who are intellectually engaged, Elana Kagan once penned a nice little note to President Clinton.

• Speaking of athletes, the NBA Finals have people questioning whether or not Kobe Bryant is actually a clutch player. When will people learn that clutch players are a myth?

• Amid the myriad things to love about this–I mean, the puns alone are worth it–I think my favorite is the idea of a story being attributed to Craig Ehlo.

• Thom Yorke thinks the music industry is going to implode in months, so it’s a good thing Radiohead already had a pretty good couple decades.

• Have you ever wondered what a conversation between Megan Fox and Zach Galifianakis would sound like? Well then I have a story for you….

• We tried icing Tim, but it turns out he kinda likes Smirnoff Ice. Totally ruins it for everyone involved.

• Duke Magazine scored an exclusive interview with Duke professor and soccer expert Laurent Dubois. How did they do it??? Speaking of the World Cup, while “Hand of Clod” has been deservedly getting a lot of attention for being the best headline coming out of that travesty of a tie, our personal favorite is “It was all going so well, then…Calamity.” Who needs a game story when that’s the headline?

• Feels like it’s been some time since we linked to some fiction. Here’s Loretta Lopez. She’s a Mexican high schooler. It’s good.

MLB Postseason Preview: ALCS (Just the Regular Kind of Match)

Los Angeles Angels at New York Yankees

OVERVIEW

The Yankees and Angels were the two best teams in the AL during the regular season, and both are looking particularly impressive right now. They are each coming off sweeps in the ALDS (in which they each came back once against the other team’s dominant closer down two in the ninth). These teams have met in the playoffs twice already this decade, with Los Angeles bumping New York in the ALDS in 2002 and 2005. In 2009, the two teams split the 10 regular season games they played against each other, but the Yankees, and their fans, certainly remember when the Angels swept them in the last series before the All-Star break, when the Yankees were at their hottest. New York was better in the regular season, but expect the teams to be pretty evenly matched in the ALCS.

The Myth of Clutch

If I took 100 pennies and I threw them up in the air, about half of them would land heads and the other half tails, right? Now, if I looked around closely, I’d probably find some heads grouped together in a cluster. What does that mean? Does that mean anything?—A Civil Action

Statistics are great. They help us find the answers to important questions. Need to know if smoking causes lung cancer? Look at the data. Wonder if height is correlated with material success? There’s probably a study you can find. Think Albert Pujols is a better hitter than Mickey Mantle? Look it up. Statistics aren’t the final answer to any of these questions, but they certainly help.

The problem with statistics is that, like most great things—the automobile, plutonium, superpowers—they can be very dangerous in the wrong hands. One need only to look at the myth of baseball’s “clutch players” to see how statistics can be misinterpreted.

One week ago, Alex Rodriguez and Vladimir Guerrero were first-ballot Hall of Famers. CC Sabathia was one of the best pitchers in the game. But all three had reputations as guys who couldn’t come through in the playoffs. They were not “clutch players.” Clutch players are guys like Derek Jeter, David Ortiz, and Cole Hamels.

Except here’s the thing: Rodriguez and Guerrero each had clutch ninth-inning hits in their division series. Sabathia gave up one run in seven innings vs. the Twins. Meanwhile, Ortiz went 1-for-12 with no walks and three strikeouts, and Hamels gave up four runs in five innings at home (Derek Jeter had a great series, but that’s because Derek Jeter is fucking awesome).

So what happened? Did A-Rod, Vlad and CC all suddenly learn how to be clutch players? Did Ortiz and Hamels just forget? Neither. The truth is this: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A CLUTCH PLAYER.