I’m Joining FiveThirtyEight

The title pretty much says it all. In January I’ll be starting a real j-o-b as a “Senior Writer, Sports” for the new ESPN-backed FiveThirtyEight, due to launch in February. So I thought I’d better say some quick goodbyes and hellos.

For old readers:

While I’m admittedly a little sad that this blog won’t be coming back any time soon, this should obviously be great news for people who enjoy my work: Backed by ESPN/FiveThirtyEight data and resources, it will be better and there will be more of it. My responsibilities at FiveThirtyEight will be similar to what I’d been doing here already: conducting original research, writing articles, and blogging. Except full time. And paid.

(Yeah, it’s basically my dream job.)

For new readers:

Of course, for many of you reading this, this is probably your first time visiting this site. In which case: welcome!  For a primer on who the hell I am, you might want to read the “about Ben” and “about this blog” pages, or you can skip those and just read some of my articles. My best known work is undoubtedly The Case For Dennis Rodman, which is incredibly long—

—but has a guide, which can be found here. And in case you’ve heard rumors, yes, it speculates that Rodman—in a very specific way—may have been more valuable than Michael Jordan.

However, if I had to pick just a handful of articles to best represent my ideas and interests, it might look something like this:

Football:

Quantum Randy Moss—An Introduction to Entanglement

The Aesthetic Case Against 18 Games

Basketball:

The Case for Dennis Rodman, Part 4/4(a): All-Hall?

Bayes’ Theorem, Small Samples, and WTF is Up With NBA Finals Markets?

Baseball:

A Defense of Sudden-Death Playoffs in Baseball

Why Not Balls and Strikes?

General:

C.R.E.A.M. (Or, “How to Win a Championship in Any Sport”)

Applied Epistemology in Politics and the Playoffs