Free Ballin’

I arrived in Miami on December 28th ’08, without a place to stay.  I had floated numerous couchsurfing requests out to Miami CSers and received only one reply, negative.  She did direct me to an acquaintence, Brian, a recent couchsurfer, and I had an email out to him.  Without any other prospects, I checked into [...]

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I’m in a coffee shop in Spruce Pines, a town a few minutes from Little Switzerland.  A few minutes ago I went to the restroom and left my laptop, ipod, jacket and shoulder bag just sitting there.  And they were still there when I got back.  I’m still not used to that.  The first few [...]

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Regarding the article I linked to in the previous post.  Michael Lewis doles out lots of really worthwhile information, in this article (and Moneyball) but when he goes off on his own to make statements, he frequently falls flat.  After discussing how tricky it is to properly valuate players, and how Daryl Morey thinks the [...]

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Michael Lewis (yes, of Moneyball fame) wrote a piece today in the Times.  I like that Lewis is interested in analytical ways of understanding sports, and that he talks to smart people and publishes what they say.  It just annoys me when he writes as though the answers to his questions are known, and clear, [...]

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I’ll be heading to Toronto in a few weeks, and I was really hoping to see Jermaine O’Neal play.  I’m a huge fan of his, and I wanted to see what he had, at this point.  I’ve read all season about how disappointing he has been, but his numbers indicate more of a mixed bag.  [...]

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So I’m staying with my mother’s middle-school chum, Susan, in Little Switzerland, NC, and we drove up to Mt. Mitchell last night.  Mt. Mitchell is the tallest peak east of the Mississippi (tallest east of South Dakota, actually) and it’s quite something.  Elisha Mitchell had a bet on which mountain in North Carolina was the tallest.  [...]

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Uh, that stuff about ride-sharing v. hitchhiking?  Yeah, check that.  It looks like I’m going to get a little of both on this trip out from NC to LA. I posted on craigslist last week, looking for a ride-share, and got a response yesterday.  A guy in Asheville, NC is heading to Montana and I’m [...]

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I’m planning for the cross-country venture I’m taking in some ten days, from North Carolina to Los Angeles, and weighing the pros and cons of ride-sharing vs. hitchhiking.  Don’t mind if I think aloud here… It’s a fairly simple issue.  Ride-sharing is vastly more comfortable and vastly more expensive.  I needn’t really go into detail [...]

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I’m hitchhiking out of Charlotte today, up to the house of a friend of my mother’s, in Little Switzerland, NC, which I’m told is sensational, overlooking Mt. Mitchell (tallest peak east of the Rockies.) My next game is the Clippers/Celtics, on February 25th, in Los Angeles.  My plan is to stay in Little Switzerland for [...]

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