Hypothetical Bias

I'm #1 and feel great

From the inbox:

Thank you everyone for participating in this years fall incentive program "In shape feel great."  We really appreciate your hard work and effort.  Hope you guys continue to workout, and the winners on the programs are:

1st Place- John Whitehead
2nd Place- Jackie Greene
3rd Place- Tammy Wahpeconiah

I have a certificate for each one of you; please come by the office to pick it up.

I'm requesting an electronic version of the certificate. I'll be sure to post it if/when I get it.

Update: here is a PDF of the certificate.

fun with transitivity

let's see, at this point the national championship game would be mizzou v. west virginia

Missouri	was defeated by	Oklahoma	who
	was defeated by	Colorado	who
	was defeated by	Iowa State	who
	was defeated by	Kent State	who
	was defeated by	Central Michigan	who
	was defeated by	Eastern Michigan	who
	was defeated by	Michigan	who
	was defeated by	Appalachian State

West Virginia	was defeated by	South Florida	who
	was defeated by	Cincinnati	who
	was defeated by	Pittsburgh	who
	was defeated by	Michigan State	who
	was defeated by	Michigan	who
	was defeated by	Appalachian State

Confessions of a long snapper

UK fans mourn as a real chance of beating UT (finally), slips away. From the inbox:

... Kentucky lost Saturday on a bad snap that resulted in the blocked field goal in the second OT.  As soon as I saw where the snap was headed, I knew it was going to be a miracle to get the kick away.  It was snapped right at the holder's head.  That makes for a tough catch and a long trip to the tee.  The kicker has to wait and make sure the ball is set before starting.  I think with a good snap there, Lones Sieber would have won the game.  He is as good a kicker as I have seen at Kentucky since Kenny Willis.  That just let's you know the importance of a good snapper.  Peter King recognized it in Sports Illustrated when naming his top NFL players.  He named one snapper as a representative of the overall importance of the position.  He did the math on the number of NFL games decided by a field goal to prove you can't win consistently without good snapping (and I guess a good kicker to follow).  So, next time you run into a long snapper or even an old long snapper whose glory days are far behind him, be sure and buy him a beer.

Appstate #1 in preseason poll

From CollegeSportingNews.com:

Reigning National Champion Appalachian State landed the top spot garnering 97 first place votes in the preseason AnyGivenSaturday.com (AGS) Poll of the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) released today.

Note to self: buy your season tix.

The Hammer

A tribute to the great Henry Louis Aaron

I saw some of these HRs growing up near Atlanta. I think 700, but my fading memory is only sure that I saw a big one during the season preceding 714 and 715. We saw 714 on a TV at school (it was the daytime opener against the Reds). We saw 715 on Monday Night Baseball, my mom offered to take me and I declined, wishing to avoid the crowds. Loser.