The Cleveland baseball team

I see that the Cleveland Indians baseball team is finally going to change their nickname. I think that's probably a good thing. For one thing, the word "Indians" is ambiguous, and you wouldn't want to accidentally demean people from South Asia, when you're trying to demean people from North America. They say they haven't chosen …

The World Chess Championship is kinda not so great

As I write this, the chess Candidates Tournament is still expected to be held as scheduled, starting March 17, 2020, in Yekaterinburg, Russia. The tournament is between eight of the top chess players who aren't currently the World Champion. The winner of the tournament will earn the right to play a match against the current …

How to fix American football overtime

In American football, a neutral position is not really possible. There is no equivalent of a "jump ball" or a "face off". One team, and not the other, must have possession of the ball, giving that team an advantage. This results in the overtime coin flip problem. I'll assume that overtime is "sudden death": The …

Points scored in overtime are not real points

I should know better than to write about college football, a sport that I pay little attention to. But it's a particularly egregious example of an irritating phenomenon. On November 24, 2018, in American college football, Texas A&M and LSU were tied 31–31 at the end of regulation, and Texas A&M won in overtime. But …

Why throwing a game is against the rules

On November 29, 2012 (six years ago today), there was an NBA basketball game that got some attention. It was a nationally televised game featuring two powerhouse teams: the San Antonio Spurs (Tim Duncan, etc.), versus the Miami Heat (Lebron James, etc.). To the dismay of many, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich more-or-less threw the game, …