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.
Whether or not the 2013 Kobe-less Lakers join the Lakers teams of 1958, 1975, 1976, 1994 and 2005 as the only ones not to make the playoffs now comes down to if either Marc or brother Pau Gasol can win their season finale Wednesday. Either Marc needs to stop Utah's Al Jefferson inside after he scored another 22 points Monday to beat Minnesota, or Pau needs to step up and help the Lakers beat the Rockets.
15 Apr 2013
An important hockey game was scheduled Monday, as the Boston Bruins came home to try to rebound from two losses and keep the visiting Ottawa Senators from threatening to make a run at home ice advantage for the playoffs. However, the game quickly became unimportant and cancelled in the wake of the explosions at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
15 Apr 2013
Ninth inning rallies by both Tampa Bay and Boston extended the Monday morning game beyond three hours and hopefully kept most of the 37,000 Red Sox fans from getting far from the stadium before explosions just over a mile way. The explosions appear to have occurred less than a half hour after the conclusion of the game.
15 Apr 2013
Dwight Howard scored 26 points and grabbed 17 rebounds Sunday against one of the greatest players of all-time, Tim Duncan, to get the Lakers one win from the playoffs. The Lakers were able to win the final three minutes after Bryant went down in the last game, and in their first full game without Bryant they beat the Spurs, the second best team in the West. A win against the Rockets Wednesday, or a loss by the Utah Jazz Monday or Wednesday, puts the Lakers in the playoffs most likely against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
14 Apr 2013
The Chicago Bulls hit some three-pointers to keep the score respectable, but the Miami Heat's dominance was most evident by the 57% of the 2-point shots they hit to the 32% accuracy they allowed the Bulls while holding them without a 2-point shot for the first 16 minutes of the second half. Dwyane Wade and LeBron James both went 7-12, and Chris Bosh went 6-8 from the floor as the Heat improved to 36-4 on their home court after earning home court advantage throughout the playoffs.
14 Apr 2013
Goalies Rick Hartzell of Quinnipiac and Jeff Malcolm were both spectacular throughout the second period of the NCAA Frozen Four championship Saturday, as each stopped barrages of rebounds, deflections, short one-on-ones, getting run over twice each and even defending 5-on-3 power plays en route to stopping 14 shots each in the period. They were within 15.5 seconds of going into the third period of the college hockey championship with a scoreless tie for the first time in 45 years. Malcolm would become the fifth goalie ever to register a championship shutout - a fitting birthday gift - but the next few seconds would end the shutout attempt by Hartzell.
13 Apr 2013
Kobe Bryant fought back tears after a game in which he appeared to tear his left Achilles Heel on a drive to the basket with 3:08 to go in the game Friday. He somehow managed to come back on the court to hit two free throws and tie the game 109-109. The Lakers managed to win the final three minutes of the game without him to stay one game ahead of the Utah Jazz for the final spot with two games to play, but may need to win both remaining games without him to make the playoffs since the Jazz owns the tie-breaker.
12 Apr 2013
Former Timberwolves player Al Jefferson set a career high with 40 points and saved the Utah Jazz’s season when he fought through a double team by Ricky Rubio Greg Stiemsma, and pulled up to hit a jumper with one second on the shot clock and 40 seconds on the game clock to give Utah a 101-98 lead. The Jazz is now within ½ a game of the Lakers for the final playoff spot and owns the tie-breaker with just the following games left to play. The Lakers were named after Minnesota's 10,000 lakes before moving from Minneapolis to Los Angeles in 1958. This weekend they are counting on the current Minnesota team, the Minnesota Timberwolves, to beat the Utah Jazz and help the Lakers.
12 Apr 2013
The Major League Baseball Players Association said Friday it had received an application from rapper Jay-Z to be a baseball agent the same day he released “Open Letter,” which includes the lyrics, “Obama said, 'Chill you gonna get me impeached.' You don't need this s--- anyway, chill with me on the beach.'" Jay-Z took his new wife Beyonce to Cuba several months after their $40,000 a person fundraiser for President Obama, and the White House is denying they gave him approval for the trip.
12 Apr 2013
Yale and Quinnipiac are only seven minutes apart, but they will play in Pittsburgh Saturday for the NCAA Hockey Title, joining the UConn women's basketball team to give the state two winter champions. With NHL-bound goalie and potential player of the year Eric Hartzell in net, Quinnipiac practically put the game out-of-reach during the first 12 minutes by jumping ahead 3-0 en route to a 4-1 win. The game started late due to Yale needing overtime to beat UMass-Lowell in the other semifinal Thursday.
11 Apr 2013