A Venn diagram of the etymology of baseball team names
San Diego Padres
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Named after the earlier Pacific Coast League team, which in turn was named for the term for Spanish missionaries in the area. Only team with an entirely non-English name.
Category Archives: Sports
As Long as it's not Taylor-Theismann
Rhett analyzes a football collision. Momentum and Football
Dark Matter Left, Red Shift, Big Bang on Two, on Two. Ready? Break!
The Onion: NFL Scientists Postulate Theoretical Down Before First Down
Citing the extremely low level of entropy present before a normal set of football downs, scientists from the NFL’s quantum mechanics and cosmology laboratories spoke Monday of a theoretical proto-down before the first.
Mr. Met is not Pleased
The Onion: Rare Centuple Play Ends Mets’ Season
This was the most outs recorded on a single play since the 2004 Montreal Expos were eradicated from the league after hitting into an ∞-play
I’m a Yankees fan, making it easier to laugh at this national-league humor.
Give Us Your Brains
NFL players promise brains to concussion research
I trust that there are no zombies hiding on the staff at the institution(s) doing the research.
Day Late, Dollar Short
BTW, watching football (and a little golf) in HD was great. I get NBC and FOX in HD on broadcast; CBS doesn’t come in (yet).
Time In
A modest proposal for improving football: the ‘time-in’
If you’ve ever noticed that football games slow to a predictable crawl at the end of each half, the time-in is the rule for you. The idea is simple: When the clock is stopped, for whatever reason, a coach could call a “time-in,” and force the clock to start up again. Think of it as the antimatter version of the timeout.
The time-in is so powerful that I recommend it be strictly rationed: each team would get only one time-in per season. The possibility of a sudden time-in would loom large in every coach’s mind at the most tense points in the game, introducing just enough concern and uncertainty to make the game different. Timeworn clock-management strategies would no longer be a given. And yet, for the average viewer on a Sunday, the game on the field would still be your father’s football.
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Of course, this assumes that the time-in is used that game. If it hasn’t been used yet, it affects the game in a different, but more subtle way: the opposing team will simply have to assume that it might be used. Coaches would enter the realm of game theory: how do we calculate when it’s the best game to use it? And what if the other team is expecting us to think this way?
Those Who Can, Do. Those Who Can't, Explain.
Usain Bolt: The Science of Running Really Fast
Even without knowing the times, you can see that this is a special run. The first few seconds are fairly average, and as expected the acceleration trails off after around 40m, but then he just keeps going. Bolt covers 60-80m faster than 40-60m, somehow increasing his acceleration, and takes 80-100m at the same speed, with no significant deceleration.
Ice to See You
NY Times: For Winter Games in Vancouver, Ice Isn’t So Easy
“You can’t just go out there and make ice,” said Hans Wuthrich, in charge of the surface at the newly built curling arena, where the final step is a delicate spritz of scientifically configured water droplets strong enough to alter the course of 44 pounds of sliding granite.
The five ice specialists, each with deep Canadian ties, have extensive experience from previous Olympics. On behalf of ice, they helped design new locales and the upgrades to existing ones. They toured Vancouver’s water-treatment plants to study their product’s key ingredient. They ponder every ice-dooming possibility.
The Eye of the Beholder
A wife-carrying contest is actually a lot like it sounds. Men, carrying wives, race through an obstacle course that includes sand, water and fences. The prize for winning the race is the wife’s weight in beer.