Does It Matter Or Not?

The NFL referees are back! Too bad it was a week too late. My Green Bay Packers had a win instantly converted into a loss based on the horrible call by the replacement referees this past Monday night.

Bad Call

I have had people tell me it isn't a big deal. As long as the Packers, or any other team, gets hot at the end of the season and into the playoffs, that is all that matters. But what if this stolen win that was instantly converted into a loss keeps the Packers out of the playoffs? What if the Packers have fewer home playoff games? Isn't that a loss of revenue to the team? What if the Packers end up with a worse match up in the playoffs, assuming they make the playoffs?

But it is only one game, right? Not a big deal? Major League Baseball plays 162 games in their season. This is 10 times as many games as the NFL. Green Bay losing a win and getting an unjustified loss is equivalent to a bad call in MLB instantly converting 10 wins into 10 losses for a baseball team. The public outcry would be large.

As of September 27, 2012, if 10 wins were taken away from the division leading teams in MLB and converted into 10 losses, then 4 of the 6 division leaders would be knocked out of the playoffs. The other two division leaders (Washington and Cincinnati) would barely be hanging onto the last wildcard position.

On a positive note, if the Pittsburgh Pirates were the Seattle Seahawks, then the Pirates would have 10 losses instantly converted into 10 wins. This would put the Pirates into the last wildcard playoff position.

Indiana Open

Kyle King and I competed at the Indiana Open held at Indiana University of PA on August 28, 2012. We played in the Men's Open Doubles. Kyle also played Men's Open Singles. It was a USTA sanctioned tournament.

Stormy

A few weeks ago my family experienced the pain of losing our little Pug Rosie. She was hit by an automobile.
Today we drove to Rome, Ohio and adopted a new 3 month old Pug and Japanese Chin mix that my daughter named Stormy. We drove through a terrible lightening and thunder storm to get her.
After a storm, the sun shines again!

My daughter and Rosie.

Stormy

My daughter and Stormy.

Shades of Libertarianism

David Friedman

I recently came across an illustrated video of David Friedman discussing his libertarian ideas. Friedman's ideas were published in his book The Machinery of Freedom (full text is available here). Friedman's version of libertarianism is called market anarchism or anarcho-capitalism. Don't be scared off by the radical sounding terms. Essentially it is a look at what a society might look like if the functions of government were privatized by markets and voluntary exchange. I read the book many years ago and found that it opened up my mental horizons. Just as there are many shades of other political and economic philosophies, there are many shades of libertarian philosophies. Let the marketplace of ideas sort it out.

By the way, David Friedman is the son of Nobel Prize winning economist and libertarian Milton Friedman. Interestingly, Milton's libertarianism is a different shade than David's.

Milton Friedman

My Office

Google in Education

Check out this website for an overview of what Google offers for Education.

http://www.google.com/edu/index.html

Green Bay Packers Through The Years

MVP - Rodgers or Brees

The focus on Drew Brees seems to be his breaking Marino's yardage record. Make no mistake, Brees has had one of the best years ever for a quarterback. But Brees attempted 155 more passes than Aaron Rodgers.
If Rodgers had as many pass attempts as Brees, he would have thrown for 6,044 yards and nearly 59 touchdowns. Statistical analysis will suggest that Aaron Rodgers should win the NFL MVP award by a somewhat comfortable margin in a year with strong quarterback play.

Mathematicians Show Happiness In Decline

Trending: Tweets show global happiness down : http://usat.ly/tX9ebG

Rodgers is 2011 AP Male Athlete of the Year

Aaron Rodgers named 2011 AP Male Athlete of Year : http://usat.ly/s01Vzh

Rodgers - Sporting News Athlete of the Year 2011

Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers named Sporting News 2011 Athlete of the Year.

Verifying Trig Identities

GoAnimate.com: Verifying Trig Identities by krstitt

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

Aaron Rodgers Is Lapping The Field

Aaron Rodgers - QB Green Bay Packers

Quarterback Ratings as of November 12, 2011

1. Aaron Rodgers 129.1
2. Drew Brees 100.6
3. Tom Brady 100.0

Going into this weekend, Aaron Rodgers had a quarterback rating that is 3.6 standard deviations above the mean in the NFL. This would be like having an IQ of about 154. Drew Brees is second coming in at 1.3 standard deviations above the mean, followed by Tom Brady at 1.2 standard deviations above the mean. The fact that Rodgers is at least 2.3 standard deviations above everyone else is statistically unbelievable. Rodgers has lapped everyone at least once and in many cases several times. At the half way point of the season, the MVP race is not even close.

Rodgers and Favre

During the Green Bay - San Diego game today, I heard an interesting comparison between Aaron Rodgers and Brett Favre. Green Bay receiver Donald Driver, in his 13th season, has played with Favre and Rodgers. Driver appreciates how Rodgers does not put his receivers in situations that can get them hurt. Rodgers is extremely accurate and he rarely forces passes into dangerous areas. Favre, the ultimate gunslinger, was more apt to put receivers in a compromising situation by putting the ball in positions that required receivers to have to go and get it. Driver's career has been extended with Rodgers at quarterback.

Favre and Rodgers

As I have said before, I loved Brett Favre as the Packers' quarterback. But Aaron Rodgers is an amazing quarterback. At this point in the NFL season with Green Bay 8-0, Aaron Rodgers is running away with the MVP award.

What Will Happen at the Top of the Men's Tennis Tour in 2012?

I don't have a crystal ball to tell me what 2012 will be like for men's tennis. But I will try to make some comments and predictions.

Next week, Andy Murray will move past Roger Federer for the #3 world ranking. Murray has been the hottest player on tour in recent weeks. This will be the lowest ranking for Federer in about 8 years. The rankings will look like:

1. Novak Djokovic

2. Rafael Nadal

3. Andy Murray

4. Roger Federer

Djokovic has produced some of the best tennis ever in 2011. Nadal has experienced confidence issues, especially against Djokovic. Nadal is also susceptible to injuries. Murray is on a roll right now and appears to be healthy. Federer is not playing enough tournaments at the moment to stay ahead of Murray in ranking points. Understandably, Federer is primarily focused on winning Grand Slams. At his age and stage in his career, Grand Slams are what Federer gets up for. Federer trains hard and remains remarkably injury free. Still, Federer may need to play more tournaments to keep his ranking high and his seeding high in the major tournaments.

The health of the top players will play a large roll in the outcome at the Grand Slam tournaments. Nevertheless, my predictions for 2012 in the Grand Slams are:

Australian Open - Roger Federer
French Open - Raphael Nadal
Wimbledon - Novak Djokovic
US Open - Novak Djokovic

I will probably change my mind many times on these predictions. But for now this is my story.

Division by Zero

Here is what happens when you divide by zero.

1st Annual GHS Open House Chair Race

Watch the exciting video of the 1st Annual GHS Open House Chair Race held on 9-21-11.
 

Jimmy Conners Rocked New York.

Twenty years ago, Jimmy Conners put on an electrifying 11 day performance at the US Open at the advanced tennis age of 39. Conners played the New York crowd like Eric Clayton plays guitar. I liked how Conners treated a tennis match like a battle that you spilled your guts to win. Conners was the Brett Favre of tennis, a gunslinger.

Tennis Championship Banners

I was in the Greenville High School gym today. I noticed that the Region 1 Championship and the Tri-County Championship for 2011 had been added to the Greenville Boys' Tennis banners. Looks great. It is a goal for the tennis team to add championships to the banners every year. Congratulations to the players who have made this possible.

Remembering the 2011 Championship Season for Greenville Tennis

The 2011 season for the Greenville Boys' Tennis Team was emotional to say the least. We lost our leader and #1 player, Jimbo Saxion, in an automobile accident at the beginning of the school year. Everyone loved Jimbo. It was hard to think about starting the tennis season. However, as we got closer to the beginning of the tennis season, I heard some of our seniors (like Kenny Surano and Sebastian Estrada) talking about how they couldn't wait to get the tennis season started. This motivated me to see if we couldn't find the strength within us to capture a 4th consecutive championship season. In the end, the team overcame the obstacles and stayed focused to go undefeated (12-0) in Region 1 and to capture our 3rd consecutive Region 1 Championship. Then the team battled to become Tri-County Champions for the third time in four years. Fittingly, we were co-champions of Tri-County with Kennedy Catholic. I will never forget this group of players who completed 4 for Jimbo.

Jimbo

GHS Boys' Tennis 2011

GHS Boys' Tennis 2011

 Jimbo was Garrett Fisher's best friend. Garrett has captured his thoughts on the loss of Jimbo (nearly one year later) and the amazing tennis season on his blog ripjs1.tumblr.com.

http://ripjs1.tumblr.com/post/8136779831/4forjimbo
http://ripjs1.tumblr.com/post/8136976621/this-was-after-zack-and-dans-win-against-their
http://ripjs1.tumblr.com/post/8081290306/remembering-a-legend