What we read while contemplating the art of winning an unfair game…
- Moneyball, the movie, was released on Friday. Joe Posnanski and Roger Ebert opine. Meanwhile, Keith Law gives a not-so-positive review, and here’s some background on his relationship with Michael Lewis. The New York Times Magazine has a feature on Billy Beane. A Bay Area writer goes over the creative liberties taken by the movie.
- In non-Moneyball baseball news, this story looks back at the strange decline of Chuck Knoblauch.
- Taylor Branch’s article in The Atlantic on college athletics has been all the rage, spurring many to consider this a tipping point in the debate over whether college athletes should be paid. Frank Deford called it the most important article ever on the subject. Others weren’t as quick to heap the praise, including John Gasaway at Basketball Prospectus and Seth Davis at SI. Branch himself responded to Davis on his blog.
- The Columbia Journalism Review takes ESPN to task for its coverage of conference realignment.
- Hey, remember R.E.M.? If you don’t, read this 1987 story on the band.
- Louis C.K. talks with The A.V. Club about the second season of Louie.
- Penn Jillette discusses atheism, libertarianism, and his new book about atheism and libertarianism with Reason TV.
- An homage to Phil Hartman on what would have been his 63rd birthday. It reminds us of our own last year.
- A look inside an Amazon.com warehouse. Meanwhile, Bill Gates loves Amazon.
- The best tweet ever?
