For the past couple of days, Dan has been taking on high school sports. Today's article focuses on the complex tie breaking rules in the Dual County League in which Lincoln-Sudbury, Acton-Boxboro and Wayland finished in a three-way tie but only Wayland advances because of a perverse tie-breaking system which gives incentive to running up the score in the first half. Not living in the local area, I am admittedly removed from the ins and outs of local high school football but I tend to agree that the system as Dan describes it needs to be changed. That being said, what were league officials thinking in the first place when they approved such a rule set in the first place?
If you haven't read the article but I give you the hint above that these high rules give incentive to run up the score, can you guess which point of reference Shaughnessy will introduce? You betcha - let's take a few swipes at Belichick and the Patriots. Shaughnessy does not disappoint here. By the way, I think Shaughnessy is convinced that Belichick originated and is almost the exclusive user of the phrase "It is what it is" ...I dont know Shank but I hear that phrase used all the time.
Finally, Shaughnessy brings up a reference to game theory..it is an odd reference in that he says "if you have memorized...game theory...." (then you might be able to understand the tiebreaker system). My point: You dont memorize game theory, you comprehend it.
10 comments:
After thinking about this a bit more, you can understand why the league officials chose to emphasize first half differential--because you dont expect to see running up the score in the first half (In other words, everything should be fair game in the first half)
If it is true that there a lot of 35-0 scores (I wonder if research would back this up) then perhaps the rule needs to be simply amended that the differential contribution from any single game is capped at 20?
Dave M
Not sure if you missed this or just skipped it but I didn't see any post for this article he wrote the other day: http://tinyurl.com/27d726
I missed it. Great writing by Dan.
With the Globe's new online format, it is easier to miss--why cant they include a byline for crying oout loud?
Gotta give the Shankmeister credit when credit is due. He penned an excellent article on BC High's Jon Bartlett on Nov. 21. Maybe the church threatened him with excommunication if he thrashed the guy. Hmmmm....
Did antbody else notice the Shaughnessy story on the Call of the Green Monster Website? Pretty funny stuff. Here's the url: http://callofthegreenmonster.typepad.com/call_of_the_green_monster/2007/11/dan-shaughnessy.html
Shanughnessy did do a good job on the BC High article...happy to give credit where it is due. He generally does a good job on these types of pieces as long as he stays off his preachy soapbox about how there are more important things in life than sports. Fortunately, he did not lord it over us in this article
Sportsreporter - thanks for the link on the Green Monster article - that was pretty funny. Thank goodness Bill James wont let that signing occur!
New Dan! C's this time
http://www.boston.com/sports/
basketball/celtics/articles/2007/
11/30/smoke_signals_loud_and_clear/
?page=full
Will post tonight
Have been crazy at work
Dave M
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