Sports
For casual fans to hardcore athletes. All about Sports.
Number Eight
You search your bag for your mouthguard. You swear you packed it away this morning, you need it to play today’s play off game. You find it tucked away under the folds of your bag. You stand up and look out the washroom window, past the frosted glass and in the space of the creases. You can see the other team lining up on the field, the rugby ball thrown at blistering speeds, its blue stripe fading away with its spin. You zip up your bag and check the strength of the knot you made with your laces. Your captain walks in. He stretches his neck up to look you in the face. He glances at the team outside as well. Placing his hands on your shoulder his words break the silence. “You can’t let their words get to you, your only as strong as you allow yourself to be.”
By Ahmad Ameen8 years ago in Cleats
The Association's New Villain
Personableness can carry a lot of weight. Whether or not someone likes a player can determine the trajectory of the player's career. In sports, being likable impacts the athlete's legacy. That is what the great ones are playing for. How guys are remembered, whether fair or unfair, in a lot of cases is determined by things that occur off the field of play.
By Kyle Jordan Ferguson8 years ago in Unbalanced
Best Shooters in Soccer History
All of the action relies on the shooters in the game of soccer. Whether it be a free-kick, header, long-range, counter-attack, scissor kick, bicycle kick, volley, chip, or lob, the excitement of goalscoring is the reason why so many fans love the game.
By Kelsey Lange8 years ago in Cleats
Analyzing the Henrique/Vatanen Trade
Early season trades involving big name players have that extra level of excitement attached to them. When a trade goes through at the deadline, we're sort of expecting it. We know it's coming. When a trade involving big names comes through in November, it catches us off guard, and carries with it a new wrinkle of expectation.
By Kyle Vandenberg8 years ago in Unbalanced
Rethinking Hitter's Counts, Continued
Last time around, I wrote about the general tendency of pitchers to throw more and more fastballs as they fell down in the count despite the fact that they can throw offspeed pitches for strikes nearly as often as they do fastballs. It's a case where pitchers often see better results throwing their offspeed pitches but there was a lot I couldn't address through xwOBA, Exit Velo, and pitch usage alone.
By Owen McGrattan8 years ago in Unbalanced
Best English Players in MLS History
There has been a fair share of English players in MLS, as the growing popularity of soccer influenced the United States. With this being said, among these athletes, there are only a select few that can be referred to as the best professional soccer players among these teams.
By Mark Turner8 years ago in Cleats
An Exercise in Generating Similarity Scores
In the process of writing an article, one of the more frustrating things to do is generate comparisons to a given player. Whether I am trying to figure out who most closely aligns with Rougned Odor or Miguel Sano, it is a time-consuming and inexact process to find good comparisons. So, I tried to simplify the process and make it more exact—using similarity scores.
By John Edwards8 years ago in Unbalanced
