You pays your money and you takes your chances, but the House always has an edge.
Did you ever wonder how big that edge is?
Among the simplest edges to compute is Las Vegas roulette. If your chips are on one of the numbers from 1 to 36, and you win, you get paid 35-1. That means [...]
Clay mouths off after defeating Liston
In 1964, Cassius Clay, then only 22, brashly boasted that he would upset 7-1 favorite Sonny Liston for the world heavyweight championship. “I am the greatest!” he shouted. In retrospect, Clay clearly was the greatest. Why did his outbursts upset so many white sportscasters and fans?
One of TO’s many celebrations
In [...]
SF Giants Pitcher Matt Cain
On August 20, San Francisco Giants starter Matt Cain, after an excellent seven and two-thirds innings against the Florida Marlins, left the game ahead 5-2. Giants reliever Tyler Walker got the last out in the eighth, and with the score unchanged, closer Brian Wilson came in in the top of the [...]
© Time
While campaigning in Kentucky on Thursday, Hillary Clinton, identifying with Eight Belles, the only filly running in the 134th Kentucky Derby, said, “I want everybody to place a little money on the filly.”
Today, Eight Belles came in second to Big Brown, collapsed, broke both front ankles, and had to be euthanized on the track.
Coincidence? [...]
As a kid, baseball was my sport. I was too short to be effective in basketball, no one played soccer in the 50’s, and although I was fast and could catch, my lack of bulk marginalized me in football. I played Little League, made the All-Star team, and loved the game. I played softball [...]
By missing their last shot, tenth-seeded Davidson lost to top-seeded Kansas 59-57…and for the first time in NCAA tournament history, all four #1 seeds made it to the Final Four.
What are the odds of that happening?
My assumptions are arbitrary—I admit that—but here’s the math.
photo credit: Duane Burleson/AP
Steroids in Major League Baseball should not be a political issue. But it is.
Who’s the liar? Brian McNamee or Roger Clemens? I don’t know…and actually, I don’t much care. Damn them all. Professional baseball is full of over-amped egos and self-defined Masters [...]
Administration after administration has perceived Cuba as an irritant inside our hemispheric shell and coated it with layer after layer of economic and political nacre, which unlike mother-of-pearl, has not created value. In fact, U.S. policy has rendered Cuba nearly irrelevant.
Fidel, of course, has been the focus of our sedimentary relationship, one that has [...]
The Grinnell College men’s basketball team once scored 149 points in a game…and lost.
Last night, however, with the temperature in Grinnell, IA (pop. ~10,000), well below zero, the team’s nearly unique playing style heated up the crowd as the Pioneers trounced the Knox College (IL) Prairie Fire 100-80, bringing their record to 15-7. John Grotberg, [...]
Roger Clemens testifies before Congress, and the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform grills him about use of steroids and human growth hormone. He denies everything.
This tabloid shocker is getting far more press than real disasters in Darfur or the Iraq situation (can’t call it a war, because only Congress can declare [...]
