One curious feature of professional sports is the practice of a team changing cities but not changing its name. For example, one does not often think of Utah and Jazz, but the name made sense when the team was in New Orleans. The same story holds for the Lakers and …
Chapter Six of The Wages of Wins is called “Shaq and Kobe.” The purpose of this chapter was to introduce Wins Produced, and the story of Shaq and Kobe was used to explain this metric. The story is quite familiar to NBA fans. In 1996 these two stars came to …
Last Sunday this statement appeared in an article by Patrick Dorsey in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. The article, entitled “Determining the worth of an athlete involves many factors”, reviewed the work of several economists who have examined the value of athletes in baseball, basketball, football, and hockey. The analysis of …
The Clippers last year won 47 games. Eight teams bested this mark, so although the Clippers had a good season, at first glance it does not appear to be historic. Yet historic is the only word that can describe the Clippers year. Clipper fans have never – and I mean …
And then there was one. As the Week Five QB Score Rankings indicate, after five weeks we now have only one quarterback who has played more than once and been above average (an average QB Score per play is 1.1) every time he played. The last man standing has been …
Writing for The Wages of Wins Journal is fun, but not really an important part of my job. To keep my focus on my work I have adopted a rule of no more than one post per day. Yesterday, though, Martha Cooley – who we mention in the book – …
Bonzi Wells played only six post-season games in 2006. Although the performance of his team – the Sacramento Kings — was somewhat forgettable, Wells left a very positive impression. He averaged twelve rebounds per game, a mark that is outstanding for a center or power forward. For a shooting guard, …
In 1993 the Golden State Warriors acquired Chris Webber the night of the NBA draft. In his rookie season Webber justified this decision. He produced 11.8 wins and was also named NBA Rookie of the Year. After his rookie campaign, though, Webber – and then-coach Don Nelson – had a …
“I’m stunned. This team fooled me to some degree,” general manager Brian Cashman said. “This is a tough one because this team was capable of a lot, at least I thought.” This was the reaction of the Yankees general manager to New York’s exit from the playoffs yesterday. Clearly Cashman …
When I was growing up I was taught two lessons about baseball by my father. First, since we both grew up in Detroit, we root for the Tigers. Second, we hate the Yankees. My father’s hatred went all the way back to the 1930s and continued all his life. My …