It pays to be scrappy!

"In January of 1971, the Fordham University Rams played a basketball game against the University of Massachusetts Redmen. The game was in Amherst, at the legendary arena known as the Cage, where the Redmen hadn’t lost since December of 1969. Their record was 11–1. The Redmen’s star was none other than Julius Erving—Dr. J. The UMass team was very, very good. Fordham, by contrast, was a team of scrappy kids from the Bronx and Brooklyn."

And guess who won? In last week's New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell takes a look at the ways in which underdogs - the scrappy teams - exploit conventions and win. I'm not a Gladwell fan, but this is a good read.

Making Pitchers Pay

The other night I tuned into the Dodgers-Padres game to follow Randy Wolf, and basically see if one of my last three starters could get one quality start between them (they couldn't, and they can't). When the Padres' David Eckstein came to bat, Charlie Steiner kept gushing about how Eckstein 'just made other pitchers pay,' and all 'with his winning ways.' He couldn't sing his praises loud enough, and just stopped short of calling him the team's most valuable player.

Eckstein's numbers on the year? .261/.343/.359, with 0 HRs and 6 RBI. David Eckstein, making major league pitchers pay since 2001.