A Large Regular

Combine the craziness for Sports Talk Radio and Poker on TV. Here's the format:

• Instead of an appearance fee - five players from a combination of sports writers / former pro athletes / local celebrities get $250 (or whatever the show's producers can afford) in poker chips
• The game is No Limit Texas Hold 'Em
• You have a dealer who is also the show's moderator/host
• The show lasts 1 or 2 hours and with each hand dealt the dealer/moderator throws out a quick topic of discussion
• Each player has say 10-15 seconds to throw out their take on the subject AND decide whether to bet or drop
• The winner of the hand gets an extra 15 seconds on the topic
• At the end the show - the players get to keep their chips and if they bust out - the player gets nothing, nada, zilch.

How could this format fail. You could even have a Tournament of Champions. (BTW - I reserve all rights to the idea)

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- The most expensive sports team sales in history.

- The Bud Light marketing implosion will be studied in graduate schools for years. But will anyone learn anything?

- Earth Day has always been a scam. We should ditch it completely and go back to celebrating Arbor Day.

- A simple truth.

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- And the entire continent of Africa is not a small sample size either.

- China's Microsoft hack may have had a bigger purpose than just spying. We keep seeing stories like this yet so many remain in denial that China is not our friend. (HT Stephen Landry)

- One of my favorite Elon Musk Tweets

- Fresh insights into the growing home garden trend. When I was growing up it seemed half of the homes in my neighborhood grew tomatoes and other vegetables. Now I'd be curious on the percentage of homes that grew tomatoes vs legal marijuana plants?

- The Locker Room. Interesting take on culture and competition in the investment world.

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

It is with regret that I announce that I am taking my name out of contention for the men's head basketball coach at both Texas and North Carolina. Please respect me and my family's decision on this. No media interviews will be granted at this time... Heh Heh... If sports requires masks to attend then the days of sellout crowds is over. I attended an NFL game that required masks at all-times and I wouldn't do that again. And if masks are required then the folks who who have already been made afraid of COVID will just have their fears confirmed. You won't get those folks to attend any games in person - especially in indoor arenas... Just like Obama promised to close Gitmo and that everyone could keep their doctors... 

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- The "experts" were wrong about the Bee-Apocalypse too! (HT Newmark's Door)

- Hundreds of thousands of deaths averted because of COVID vaccines. Proper credit will never be given.

- Nearly half of Americans changed sports viewing habits because of social justice politics. 

- Sadly true for many people 

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

From Nicole Saphier MD, "As unemployment approaches 20%, each 1% rise can result in 3.3% spike in drug OD/ 1% increase in suicides (National Bureau of Economic Research). If unemployment hits 32%, ~77,000 Americans may die as a result [emphasis added]. Will economic fallout mortality be greater than the virus itself?"...  In the post COVID-19 world handshakes and high-fives will be discontinued in sports but slaps on the butt will still be OK (not that there's anything wrong with that)... CNN's Brian Stelter Tweeted, ""I crawled in bed and cried for our pre-pandemic lives. Tears that had been waiting a month to escape" and all I could picture was this guy. CNN's motto really should be "News for airports and pajama boys"... Hindsight is only 20/20 if you take time to look back and understand what happened in the first place... Good advice... Recently read an excellent thought experiment - anytime you read anything about COVID-19 (or anything for that matter) mentally replace the words "assessment," "analysis," "projection," "prediction," and "forecast" with the word "guess." It helps change how you feel about the author's conclusions and allows you to think more clearly...

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- It's Time to Build - by Marc Andreessen. 100% endorse.

- The busier you are, the more you need quiet time.

- Today's word for the day We've all had that hungry mouth feeling.

- 7 reasons Bill Belichick is so successful

- Bursting the bubble: why sports aren't coming back soon. Of course all models are guesses and this article is geared toward team sports. Things like golf, boxing, MMA and tennis could much easier make a comeback and perhaps a resurgence in popularity for some of those sports.

- Well JK Rowling did say the Harry Potter series would get more adult as it went along

- If you are looking for something to do perhaps consider watching a series of physics lessons from Professor Richard Feynman.

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Have to give Dana White credit for trying so hard to stage UFC 249. Long live Fight Island!

- LA without cars or pollution

- The cornavirus Wuhan virus crisis is turning Americans of both parties against China. As well it should!

- The Risk of Discovery. (Via Tim Ferriss' Five Bullet Friday)

- How's your tsundoku? Mine keeps growing no matter how I try to put a dent in it.

- One month later, sports remain shut down. An inventory of where the different pro leagues (and I include college football as a pro league) stand. I think both college and NFL schedules should be published and if the home team cannot host an event because of lockdowns then that team simply takes an "L" and forfeits. 

Not sure why I thought about this but here are the Top 5 books about sports on my bookshelves (in no particular order).

The Education of a Coach by David Halberstam

A Flame of Pure Fire: Jack Dempsey and the Roaring 20's by Roger Kahn

Loose Balls: The Short, Wild Life of the American Basketball Association by Terry Pluto

The League: Inside the NFL by David Harris

Bottom of the Ninth by Michael Shapiro

Just missing the list were Sandy Koufax by Jane Leavy (because I liked the unheralded Bottom of the Ninth better), Gridiron Genius by Michael Lombardi and The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King by Michael Craig (because poker isn't a sport).

Also on my bookshelves but not making the list are Open by Andre Agassi and The Breaks of the Game by David Halberstam. I haven't had the chance to read either book yet.

You may infer from the list that I'm fond of both sports and history. You'd be correct.