John Pudner wrote his first statistical analysis for the New York Post more than 20 years ago, ranking pitchers on opposite Sundays from when Bill James ranked batters, and he was named as the top sports news writer in his newspaper class in Virginia by the Virginia Press Association.
Since then he has run more than 200 political campaigns for candidates or ballot issues while continuing to write statistical analysis for sports and developing a database of thousands of basketball players at www.valueaddbasketball.com and writing for www.crackedsidewalks.com. He met with and advised several NBA teams to advice on the future performance of potential draft picks this year. His work for the Alabama Farmers Federation in 2010 included helping to coordinating door-to-door efforts that reached the homes of 170,000 voters, and his more recent statistical work was featured by CNN/Sports Illustrated.
Just before turning 40, Randy Couture defeated Chuck Liddell – the current star of a Miller Lite Commercial – for the UFC Light Heavyweight title. Ten years later, the legendary fighter is preparing to film “Expendables 3,” but first he will take some time on Memorial Day weekend to remember his days in the Army by raising money for wounded veterans during his sixth annual Poker Run around Las Vegas.
23 May 2013
Randy Couture told Breitbart Sports that a third “generation” of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) contenders has arisen. Many new UFC fighters were still inspired by Randy Couture's defeat Tim Sylvia in 2007 to claim his sixth world title in the most punishing sport in the world at the age of 43. Couture is leading a Poker Ride Memorial Day weekend to benefit wounded soldiers (see separate story).
23 May 2013
Major Soccer League announced that the New York Yankees, ranked as the most valuable sports brand by Forbes, and Manchester City are teaming up to bring a second professional soccer team to New York City less than three months before Fox Sports 1 launches. The New York team may play their home games at Yankee Stadium in 2015.
22 May 2013
The odds makers are giving the Miami Heat about a 90 percent chance of winning the East even though they do not play Game 1 until Wednesday, and history tells us that the San Antonio Spurs have a 94.6 percent chance of winning the West after surviving a furious rally by the Grizzlies to take a 2-0 lead. Put them together, and there is more than an 80 percent chance that the Finals will pit the Heat against the Spurs.
22 May 2013
MGM has announced that the Denver Broncos and San Francisco 49ers are the two most likely teams to win the Super Bowl next year, both with 5-to-1 odds. In theory that means each team has a 16.7% chance of winning the title. Before you place a wager though realize that based on these odds there is an 88 percent chance an NFC team will win the title and a 76 percent chance an AFC team – which is impossible.
21 May 2013
Frank VanderSloot was one of 16 million-dollar Romney donors identified by Rolling Stone, and now Nate Silver writes that the fact that there is no statistical evidence that the IRS audit of VanderSloot indicates he was targeted. At first glance there is only a 1.11 percent chance of an individual being audited by the IRS, which would indicate that there is only a 17.76 percent chance one of those 16 would be audited, contrary to the table Silver published in the New York Times.
21 May 2013
If you want to put down $21 on LeBron James claiming his second NBA title this year, you can win $5 back for your risk. The 5-to-21 published odds would indicate that the Heat has an 80.8 percent chance of the title, but that really means they give him less than a 70 percent chance. After predicting he would win multiple titles when he signed with the Heat, James, who is clearly the best player on the team, has always had the pressure on him those multiple championships.
20 May 2013
All Craig Anderson did was stop 49 of 50 shots on goal in more than 127 minutes of action, race off the ice in the final 30 seconds of regulation to help the short-handed Ottawa Senators tie the game and save the Senators from being virtually eliminated from the NHL playoffs by the Pittsburgh Penguins.
20 May 2013
Concession workers in San Francisco’s AT&T Park voted to authorize a strike even though most have full health care coverage and earn $15 to $20 an hour, perhaps raising another red flag as teams like the Sacramento Kings decide whether to locate in California or elsewhere. In addition to not being a Right-to-Work state, California has a 10.6 percent tax rate (see table below, only Toronto and Portland face higher tax rates).
13 May 2013
The winners if NBA owners approve the the Sacramento Kings move to Seattle on Wednesday would be Seattle fans (pictured), NBA players who would save about $4.6 million in taxes and Sacramento taxpayers who would not have to pay the $258 million in tax money being offerred to keep the team in Sacramento.
13 May 2013