If you are at all interested in youth or collegiate athletics, or have a child who might someday be so inclined, you ought to read this article on injuries in girls soccer. The author notes that women tend to be much more injury prone than men who play the same sports. She attributes [...]

The Mitchell Report on Steroid Use in Major League Baseball came out today.  You can read the whole thing here if you really want to, but allow me to summarize for you what it says:

Steroid usage in MLB has been rampant since at least the late 80s.
GMs, Managers, Owners, Coaches, Trainers, Union Reps, Commissioners, etc. [...]

A key principal in sportsmanship is that you shouldn’t run up the score on your opponent. The reasoning is simple: as long as you win, the score doesn’t matter. Part of winning graciously, therefore, is to reserve some dignity for your opponent. And there is very little dignity in getting slaughtered. [...]

Last Saturday, Barry Bonds tied the major league record, by hitting his 755th career home run.  Most likely, he will hit 756 this week.  Unfortunately, those homers, which should have been greeted to wide acclaim, have been somewhat tainted.  After all, this is Barry Bonds that we’re talking about here.  Bonds has been held up [...]

According to Wikipedia, there were 15 Major League Baseball players suspended for steroid usage in the 2005 season (the first season in which MLB steroid testing penalties were made public).  Of those fifteen players, nine were pitchers, five were singles hitters, and only one (Rafael Palmeiro) was a power hitter.
I wanted to point that out [...]

As a political science major in college and in graduate school, I took quite a few classes on statistics. And in those classes, I learned no more important lesson than this: improbable events happen all the time.

Dan Wetzel has an intriguing article this week on how we should pay the Little Leaguers who play in the Little League World Series (LLWS). The argument goes something like this:
1) Child actors who make millions for media conglomerates get paid for their work, even though almost any kid would be happy to be [...]

Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig today announced that he will open an investigation on the alleged steroid use by several prominent major leaguers, most notably Barry Bonds. In case you don’t follow baseball, Bonds is on the cusp of passing Babe Ruth on the list of most all-time Home Runs, and has a [...]

The United States Senate is considering a bill that would standardize strict steroids penalties across the major football, baseball, basketball, and hockey leagues. On a player’s first violation, they would be banned from that league for half a season; on a second violation they would be banned for a full season; on the third [...]

Hats off to the Cardinals. It started with the Astros victory in St. Louis, a victory which sent the Astros to the World Series. The Cardinals fans didn’t boo or sulk; they gave the players a standing ovation. Many were cheering their own team for a great season. Many were cheering for [...]