WIND SPRINTS 5/20

Here's a bunch of fun sports bullshit that I found.

1) Must be nice to just fire any adjudicator who gives you decisions you don't like. Tell us, Major League Baseball, is it nice?

2) Bryan Curtis over at Grantland gives us an examination of our two most conspicuous Sports-Fans-In-Chief. For whatever this is worth, I'm sure that both men were/are sincere in their love of sports, but pay attention to Curtis' notes on how this helps them politically, too.

3) I kinda love stories of emerging sports, so check out this tale of Organized (I hesitate to call it "professional") Quidditch. There's a lot to unpack here, so it may generate some more posts later.

4) Soccer is fascinatingly filthy. We need to talk about that a lot more. '

5) MLB is thinking about getting rid of the third-to-first pick-off move. That's small potatoes, but it's really incredibly hard to make any rule change in baseball, so it's going to be interesting to see this develop.

6) Cubs' reliever Kerry Wood has retired. What fascinates me here is how little of his career really ended up being under his control. Think about it- if Dusty Baker hadn't relentlessly overworked him, Wood could be wrapping up a Hall of Fame career. But one nagging injury, incurred as the result of a poor- but by no means insane- team strategy, and here we are.

Finally, a programming note- I'm going on vacation, assholes! I'll be gone two weeks, and will not be posting during that time (Will Mecha-Mothra Mike fill in? WHO KNOWS!?!) But I'll be back at the start of June, where we'll be thinking about a site redesign, as well as filling in some blanks on Junior Seau, corruption in global soccer, that Quidditch league listed above, the NHL's R&D department, and some thoughts on who, exactly, has the right to control fandom (hint: it's just you and me, baby). Oh, and I guess we can talk about the NBA playoffs and NHL Stanley Cup Final, if you want (Go Pacers, Go Kings).

Until then, adios!