A long time ago I read a book by Rich Eisen called Total Access. Eisen happens to anchor a show on the NFL Network called NFL Total Access. I imagine that the NFL Network offered Rich Eisen a bonus if his book served as a sales pitch for the NFL Network. If so, he certainly earned it. A central theme of the book is how awesome the NFL is and how great it is to be on a show that shows off how awesome the NFL is.
That aside, I genuinely like Eisen. I haven't seen his NFL Network show, but he was a great Sportscenter anchor and he's been great on a few podcasts where I've heard him. I like his energy and his ability to make you seem like your friend as you listen to him. Those qualities of his come out in this book, as well. He writes breezily and is entertaining as he describes the fascinating 24/7/365 activity of the NFL world.
The one big problem with this book, though, is that as much as Eisen is my friendly tour guide to the nonstop world of the NFL, he's a tour guide who is constantly reminding me that while I get to observe the goings-on at the NFL, he gets to live them. Instead of simply telling me about the continuous stream of NFL events that happen each year, he makes himself the subject of them, as if we're reading the book to first hear about how awesome Rich Eisen is and second to hear how awesome the NFL is. For example, all players at the NFL combine get timed running the 40-yard-dash. It must be an exciting event for the viewers and stressful for the performers, but how Eisen chooses to report on this is go on and on and on about getting to go to the combine and running the 40-yard dash in a full suit and dress shoes. He gets to do that because he works for the NFL and you don't.
It's a fun read, but won't make you want to hang out with Rich Eisen anymore.
Thursday, August 7, 2014
Thursday, June 12, 2014
Rob Neyer Then and Now
Last week I posted a question to one of Rob Neyer's chats:
As Sabermetrics became more mainstream and sites like Fangraphs and Baseball Prospectus gained popularity, I think there was no longer as much of a need for that bridge between modern baseball research and the average baseball fan. They even mentioning OPS and WAR on TV now. Like Rob says, he's "never done anything consciously in his life," but I think that he naturally started gravitating toward other areas where there was a need for a bridge between what his expertise and what the average reader might not know.
Eventually, he arrived at where he is now (along the way switching companies a few times). Better than anyone else, he's able to take baseball's present and connect it meaningfully to its past. He's even written some excellent books about this. Now he works at Fox Sports, and a lot of the things he writes have similar themes in the way they take a current baseball event and show how it fits in the overall history of baseball.
In short, his biggest skill is making connections. He made Sabermetrics accessible without being tedious. He now makes baseball history relevant without being boring.
You used to be the go-to person to connect Sabermetric ideas to mainstream baseball. Now you're the go-to person to connect current baseball events to baseball's history. Do you agree? Is it something you've done consciously?I thought he might not like someone like me telling him what he is and isn't, but to my surprise, he answered:
Well, that's kind of you to say. But I've never done anything consciously in my life. Things have always just sort of happened, most of them positive.I'd like to expand here on what I said and what he said. I first started reading Rob Neyer in high school in the late 90s. This was before Twitter and before RSS was common, so I went to ESPN.com every day to see if he had posted anything new. Like many others, Rob Neyer was my introduction into the world of advanced MLB metrics (often called Sabermetrics). I wish ESPN had a better archive of his old work so I could provide an representative sample of his prowess in this area. Long before Moneyball was published in 2003, he was talking about the values of OBP and other "advanced" stats. He wasn't the person at the forefront of the research, but he was the one who knew how to present it to the masses.
As Sabermetrics became more mainstream and sites like Fangraphs and Baseball Prospectus gained popularity, I think there was no longer as much of a need for that bridge between modern baseball research and the average baseball fan. They even mentioning OPS and WAR on TV now. Like Rob says, he's "never done anything consciously in his life," but I think that he naturally started gravitating toward other areas where there was a need for a bridge between what his expertise and what the average reader might not know.
Eventually, he arrived at where he is now (along the way switching companies a few times). Better than anyone else, he's able to take baseball's present and connect it meaningfully to its past. He's even written some excellent books about this. Now he works at Fox Sports, and a lot of the things he writes have similar themes in the way they take a current baseball event and show how it fits in the overall history of baseball.
In short, his biggest skill is making connections. He made Sabermetrics accessible without being tedious. He now makes baseball history relevant without being boring.
Thursday, May 29, 2014
Deal or No Deal vs. Jeopardy
I started this post back in 2008 (!) when a game show called Deal or No Deal was popular. Well, there's a reason why that show isn't on the air anymore while Jeopardy lives on. I like to summarize it with the following chart:
| Deal or No Deal | Jeopardy | |
|---|---|---|
| Unique questions per episode | 1 | 61 |
| Seconds per question | 300 | 5 |
| Pct Artificial Drama | 100% | 0% |
| Pct of Decisions 2nd-Guessed by contestants | 99% | 5% |
| IQ of host | 85 | 150 |
| IQ of contestants | 50 | 140 |
| IQ of viewers | 75 | 110 |
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