Podcast appearances and mentions of neil paine

Jim is joined by sportswriter Neil Paine to break down the hall of fame candidacy of former NBA forward Shareef Abdur-Rahim. First, Jim and Neil cover the the absolutely stacked 1996 NBA Draft Class (8:53). Next, they discuss the 50 points Shareef dropped on Ben Wallace in 2001, his elite scoring ability, and where he ranks among the best forwards of the late 1990s/early 2000s (15:20). Finally, Neil and Jim both draft their all-time teams made up exclusively 1X all-stars (49:40), before making a final call on whether or not Abdur-Rahim deserves a place in the Basketball Hall of Fame (63:01).

Hosts Alex Kirshner, Lindsay Gibbs, and Ben Lindbergh discuss the ACC Tournament and the storied college basketball rivalry between UNC, Duke, and NC State. While once-mighty UNC and NC State navigate challenging seasons, Duke looks poised for a title run with Cooper Flagg at the helm. Later, sports writer Neil Paine joins the show to discuss NHL trade deadline drama, and to reflect on the closure of the data-driven news site FiveThirtyEight. On the bonus episode available exclusively for Slate Plus members, Neil Paine sticks around to break down the NASCAR Cup series debut of Katherine Legge. Triangle College Basketball (2:55): The state of North Carolina's powerhouse teams in the ACC NHL Trade Deadline (20:19): The Hurricanes'' surprising trade to Dallas of star Mikko Rantanen RIP 538 (42:07): Farewell to the analytical news and sports site that was about more than number crunching. (Note: time codes are only accurate for Slate Plus members, who listen ad-free.) Want more Hang Up and Listen? Subscribe to Slate Plus to immediately unlock weekly bonus episodes. Plus, you'll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page, or visit slate.com/hangupplus to get access wherever you listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosts Alex Kirshner, Lindsay Gibbs, and Ben Lindbergh discuss the ACC Tournament and the storied college basketball rivalry between UNC, Duke, and NC State. While once-mighty UNC and NC State navigate challenging seasons, Duke looks poised for a title run with Cooper Flagg at the helm. Later, sports writer Neil Paine joins the show to discuss NHL trade deadline drama, and to reflect on the closure of the data-driven news site FiveThirtyEight. On the bonus episode available exclusively for Slate Plus members, Neil Paine sticks around to break down the NASCAR Cup series debut of Katherine Legge. Triangle College Basketball (2:55): The state of North Carolina's powerhouse teams in the ACC NHL Trade Deadline (20:19): The Hurricanes'' surprising trade to Dallas of star Mikko Rantanen RIP 538 (42:07): Farewell to the analytical news and sports site that was about more than number crunching. (Note: time codes are only accurate for Slate Plus members, who listen ad-free.) Want more Hang Up and Listen? Subscribe to Slate Plus to immediately unlock weekly bonus episodes. Plus, you'll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page, or visit slate.com/hangupplus to get access wherever you listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosts Alex Kirshner, Lindsay Gibbs, and Ben Lindbergh discuss the ACC Tournament and the storied college basketball rivalry between UNC, Duke, and NC State. While once-mighty UNC and NC State navigate challenging seasons, Duke looks poised for a title run with Cooper Flagg at the helm. Later, sports writer Neil Paine joins the show to discuss NHL trade deadline drama, and to reflect on the closure of the data-driven news site FiveThirtyEight. On the bonus episode available exclusively for Slate Plus members, Neil Paine sticks around to break down the NASCAR Cup series debut of Katherine Legge. Triangle College Basketball (2:55): The state of North Carolina's powerhouse teams in the ACC NHL Trade Deadline (20:19): The Hurricanes'' surprising trade to Dallas of star Mikko Rantanen RIP 538 (42:07): Farewell to the analytical news and sports site that was about more than number crunching. (Note: time codes are only accurate for Slate Plus members, who listen ad-free.) Want more Hang Up and Listen? Subscribe to Slate Plus to immediately unlock weekly bonus episodes. Plus, you'll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page, or visit slate.com/hangupplus to get access wherever you listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tony talks Bearcats and BPI with Neil Paine, on ESPN 1530!

Tony talks Bearcats and BPI with Neil Paine, on ESPN 1530!

Tony and Austin talk to Neil Paine, Bob Mangine, and Mo Egger. Plus, they make their Super Bowl picks and take your calls and TalkBacks on ESPN 1530!

Third hour of The V Show. Nick and Jenky eat Reese Cups. We talk about the Ichiro HOF voting. Phil hollers at Neil Paine. Some UofL stats. Would a Heisman vote changer ZC? Dan Hurley was a lunatic again. Former UofL player/coach and current analyst David Padgett joins to talk some UofL hoops. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Wharton's Cade Massey, Eric Bradlow, and Shane Jensen speak with Neil Paine, sportswriter and columnist, about bowl season in college football, the college football playoffs, the upcoming championship game, and more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Mark Simon is joined by Michelle Pera-McGhee, a senior journalist-engineer at The Pudding. (Pudding.cool)Michelle discussed her unique career path and projects and her original pursuit being computer science. The conversation covers various projects including data-driven analyses of crossword puzzles for inclusivity, the rhythmic influence of hip-hop producer J Dilla, a recent collaboration with sportswriter Neil Paine on baseball lineup strategies, and an analysis of how famous National Anthems compare in terms of a "diva score." Michelle elaborated on the technical and creative process behind her work, her views on journalism's state and her role within it, along with advice for aspiring journalists seeking to innovate through personal passion projects.Michelle's salute: XOXO FestThank you as always for listening. Please send us feedback to journalismsalute@gmail.comVisit our website: thejournalismsalute.org Mark's website (MarkSimonmedia.com)Tweet us at @journalismpodSubscribe to our newsletter– journalismsalute.substack.comShow summary written with the help of Descript AI

Jim is joined by sportswriter Neil Paine to break down the hall of fame candidacy of former NBA point guard Deron Williams. First, Jim and Neil cover the Deron Williams vs. Chris Paul debate that actually was a debate in the late 2000s. Next, they Deron's incredible performance in the 2007 Western Conference Finals, his play at the University of Illinois, and how he ranks among the best point guards of his era. Finally, they debate why Derrick Rose is considered to have a much better case for the HOF than Deron despite Rose having less of a career than Deron, before making a final call on whether or not Williams deserves a place in the Basketball HOF.

Sports Analytics King Neil Paine is on to address some of the questions on our mutual minds. Am I correct that people are less into politics this election? Is Kamala Harris a classic backup QB promotion? Is baseball back in American culture (Thanks to Judge and Ohtani)? Is Ohtani paradoxically more fun now that he's not pitching? Is Aaron Rodgers too old to be good? Is a “system quarterback” even a real thing? What NFL players have “shadow value”? We discussed these subjects and much more in a talk that was, in my opinion, quite enjoyable. House of Strauss is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.houseofstrauss.com/subscribe

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm a fan of Neil Paine's data driven sports Substack and you should be too. Neil's got a gift for finding sports mysteries and probing deeper. This conversation went so many places and I could have kept it going hours longer but for the hard out. Topics include but aren't limited to…* The data driven case for Caitlin Clark getting left off Team USA* If Clark's teammates are consistently dropping the passes, are the turnovers her fault?* Differences between the WNBA and NBA* Was Tim Duncan underrated? * Should NFL player stats be more respected by NFL analysts? * A sneaky reason for why Tom Brady is the GOAT* Will announcer Brady teach us about his greatness? * Why can't teams beat the NFL Draft? * Do we actually know beforehand when an NBA Draft is a “weak draft”?* Does MLB showing us “catch probability” undermine our enjoyment?* Why can't Canadian teams win a Stanley Cup? * Are some great players actually chokers? House of Strauss is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.houseofstrauss.com/subscribe

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ben Lindbergh, Rany Jazayerli, and Neil Paine discuss the death of Willie Mays, Mays as the last legendary link to an earlier era, the statistical cases for Mays as the greatest all-around player and greatest player, period in major league history, and (36:45) baseball's new greatest living player, plus (46:02) banter about Kansas courting the […]

Bernie chats with former Atlanta Hawks executive, and current Substack publisher Neil Paine. Neil previews the NBA Finals and NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs as he breaks down the chances of each participant. Neil's Substack can be found at https://neilpaine.substack.com/

You might have seen the Patrick Mahomes stat that went viral this week. The man behind that stat, , joins us this week at The Finder. An old colleague from the ESPN days, the whip-smart proprietor of Neil's Substack talks about using numbers to do premium storytelling, his final days at the now-defunct The Messenger, Denver's altitude as a superpower, the full-circle response to his “infamous” Andrew Wiggins story, reimagining the Kobe Bryant clutch debate, his recent post on an NBA efficiency paradox and what he learned while working in the Atlanta Hawks' basketball operations.Really great to catch up with Paine. Follow my lead and subscribe to his Substack! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.tomthefinder.com/subscribe

Jim is joined by sportswriter for The Messenger, Neil Paine, to break down the hall of fame candidacy of former St. Louis Rams wide receiver Torry Holt. Jim and Neil first cover the history of "The Greatest Show on Turf" and Holt's role in that electric offense (6:42). Then, they discuss Super Bowl XXXIV, Holt's versatility as a wide receiver, and compare Holt to HOFers Andre Reed and Paul Warfield (22:25). Finally, they rank Holt among best wide receivers of his era (40:35), before reaching a final verdict on whether or not Holt belongs in Canton (53:15).

Wharton's Eric Bradlow, Shane Jensen, and Adi Wyner speak with Neil Paine, Sr. Editor and Writer for The Messenger, about Florida State being left out of the College Football Playoff, the ranking system, the future expansion of the playoff, and more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jim is joined by sportswriter for The Messenger, Neil Paine, to break down the hall of fame candidacy of former MLB starting pitcher Kevin Brown. Jim and Neil first cover Brown's nasty sinker and how that translated to Brown giving up very few home runs despite playing in the steroids era (5:49). Then, they discuss the significance of Brown making back-to-back World Series as the ace of different teams, his own "flu game" in the 1997 NLCS, and compare Brown to the late Roy Halladay (11:54). Finally, they rank Brown among his 1990s pitching contemporaries (31:36), before reaching a final verdict on whether or not Brown belongs in Cooperstown (50:39).

Welcome back to Open Door, brought to you by Cox Communities, providing information for you to consider when making decisions for your multifamily communities.  Discover the latest trends and technologies that are making some multifamily business owners stand out.  On this episode, host Bess Freedman sits down with the Chief Financial Officer of The Eagle Group, Neil Paine, and the Vice President of Marketing at Cox Communications, Suzanne Schlundt, to talk about the best practices in planned communities regarding sustainability, creating that sense of community, and the importance of technology.From the exciting ways that technology is being used to help builders and developers ensure their projects meet all environmental and sustainability challenges to the reasons why it's so important to take the future sustainability of any community seriously, this is one episode you don't want to miss.  So press play and join us for another insightful episode of Open Door, presented by Cox Communities! Follow UsTwitter @CoxCommFacebook @coxcommunicationsInstagram @coxcommunicationsPresented by Cox Communitieshttps://www.cox.com/residential/mdu-community.html

By Walt HickeyWelcome to the Numlock Sunday edition.This week, I spoke to my friend Neil Paine, a sportswriter at FiveThirtyEight who can also be found at . I've been following some recent spat going on in NASCAR between ownership and the different charters; here's a recent thing I covered about it: NASCAR team owners collectively boycotted a quarterly meeting with NASCAR leadership over a kerfuffle over the sport's business model, which they argue pays track owners considerably more than it pays the racing team owners. The $8.2 billion media rights deal inked prior to the 2015 season splits the money 65 percent to the racetracks, 25 percent to the teams, and 10 percent to NASCAR itself, though there are just two track operators: Speedway Motorsports and, well, NASCAR, which owns most of the tracks on the Cup Series. Team owners don't like this arrangement, and argue that they have to spend a great deal of time trying to recruit sponsors in order to make their money, saying that sponsorships are 60 percent to 80 percent of the budgets of the 16 chartered teams.Fascinating! It's a corporate battle with billions on the line! What's not to love here! I knew Neil was into NASCAR and I wanted to talk to him about how the sport got into this mess and what the heck happened to it.Neil can be found at FiveThirtyEight and . Incidentally we can also be found out our hockey-related friend podcast .This interview has been condensed and edited. All right. Hey Neil, how's it going?Hey, Walt. Good to be here.People know you from many different places, primarily FiveThirtyEight, where you're a sports writer. But I wanted to talk to you today about a thing that I think is going to be very off-topic for a lot of readers in my newsletter and maybe even some reviews in your work, which is some extremely fascinating stuff that's happening in NASCAR, a league that has long existed but has diminished in notoriety.You and I have been talking a little bit about this on the side and I am just endlessly fascinated by some of the machinations going on in it. I just wanted to have you on to talk all about it. Do you want to talk a little bit about your experience with NASCAR and what drew your attention to it?Yeah, so I'm from the South. I'm from Atlanta and grew up watching the races and following the sport as a child. I think that that was something that was a lot more common at that time. We're talking about the '90s and the early 2000s being the heyday of not just my fan interest but also a lot of people's fan interest in the sport.I've recently gotten back into it over the past couple seasons, I don't really know why. I've definitely gotten more into motor sports in general with Formula One also coming back on my radar. That has actually been very popular among American audiences, I think, since you saw the Netflix series Drive To Survive and just people getting into the dramatic aspects of that, not necessarily maybe the on-track drama, but the personalities and the soap opera between the drivers and the teams, and all of the different backstabbing. Machinations is a good word for it that you used earlier.You see that in pretty much every motor sport though. I think that people, if they wanted to expand their horizons to a sport like NASCAR, there are so many beefs between drivers in NASCAR. The great thing about NASCAR is in Formula One, you do see sometimes drivers, they will wreck each other in the sense that they won't give someone space around a turn or something and they might touch wheels, or they might run into someone. But when you run into someone, it's the end of their day because the open wheel cars are pretty fragile, comparatively speaking.Whereas in NASCAR, these are big freaking tanks of vehicles that can hit each other. Often, there's this term, "rubbing is racing," where basically if you're not bumping people while you're out on the track, you're not really fighting for position. You can hit someone and as long as you don't put them into the wall, you can keep going.I think that that is unique in the way that it feeds into the aspect of rivalry and aspect of animosity between drivers, because you can get back at someone later in a race if they did you dirty earlier in a race, in a way that in Formula One, if you hit and mess up your front wing or whatever, you're both done for the race.Neil, I'm exhausted at the fact that you found another sport that is basically just hockey.Yeah, I know the checking aspect, definitely, the full contact aspect bleeds over between the two, I think.That's cool. I didn't know that you followed it when you were a kid, that's nice. I guess you got on my radar recently because there's beef on the track obviously, but there's also lately a lot of beef between NASCAR itself and the people who own the franchises. It's got this really interesting structure. Do you want to talk a little bit about that?Yeah, so starting in 2016, they put into place what's called the charter system, which for people that don't know, basically there are like 40 cars on the track for every NASCAR race. And in the past, you showed up for the race weekend and it didn't matter if you were a low tier team or one of the best; you still had to qualify and make a certain lap time and be among the top 40 or so qualifying cars to make it into the race on Sunday and, therefore, to get paid for the weekend.At the peak of NASCAR, if you go back and watch some of the old broadcasts, you'll see they list out a dozen or more teams that didn't qualify. So, cars that tried, they made the effort, they came out to the track, they got everything ready and they just didn't go fast enough to make the cut and they didn't end up making any money from that.Starting in 2016, they put into place these charters, which guaranteed that 36 cars would at least be able to have entry into the race. So, it only left four chances for teams that weren't part of the charter system to scratch and claw their way into the field for any given race. For those 36 teams, it offered a lot of cost certainty and also income certainty and it made things a lot easier for their dealings with sponsors, which, we'll probably go into as well, is a huge deal for NASCAR teams, more so than maybe any other sport.And so this charter system, it was put into place to make it more attractive to invest in a NASCAR team. I think since you've seen those go in, you've seen that Michael Jordan owns a team now, or co-owns it, the 2311 racing team, and you're seeing people because they can now latch onto these franchises, it's essentially the same ideas like the New England Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons. The teams that go into the charter is a car and the car number that goes with it. Sometimes the same owner can own multiple charters. So, Joe Gibbs Racing — Joe Gibbs is a former NFL coach who also runs a super successful NASCAR team — he has four charters, so he has four different cars on the track. But some teams only have one charter and these charters can be bought and sold between the different team owners as well. They can transfer the rights to the charter and that has allowed the value of those charters to go up.But the problem is that the charter system, when it was put into place, it has to be renewed. It's not like a permanent fixture in the way the sport is structured. So, there's some opposition at the top of the NASCAR food chain, because NASCAR itself is just the governing organization that oversees all of the races.It has said, "We're not really sure if we're going to renew the charters." And the teams are like, "You better renew the charters because this is the one thing that's driving our value in investing in your sport and making it more attractive for people to come in as owners and know that they can have that secured spot." That's a big part of this battleground, like you mentioned, between NASCAR, the organizing body, and the teams themselves.There are also the racetracks in the mix as well. The way that the money is split for a television contract, for instance, they have a big TV deal coming up I think after this season, maybe the NBC rights are up or whatever. They have to figure out a new TV contract and then figure out how that pie gets divided up among the teams, NASCAR itself, and the racetracks.The teams have complained that pretty much all of the money, or the overwhelming share of the money, goes to NASCAR itself and the tracks, and that they're not really getting that much, and it's much less equitable than you see in other sports, where in the NFL or Major League Baseball, you see roughly a 50/50 split between the teams and the players.In their mind, they're thinking of themselves as franchises that then supply the talent, the players, or in this case the drivers to the league, which would be NASCAR. NASCAR sees it differently. They see the drivers or the teams and drivers as independent contractors, and just part of this mix that also includes the racetracks that they have to coordinate with to stage the actual race events themselves.Combine that with the fact that advertising makes up a huge share of the revenue for any of the teams and teams are starting to lose really high profile advertisers. We're talking about the early to mid-2000s, the heyday of NASCAR, you had a lot of companies that just seemed like it made a ton of sense for them to be in NASCAR. Lowe's Home Improvement or the Home Depot, or just iconic brands being in the sport, that then you could associate with the driver. In a lot of cases the driver was in TV commercials — Tony Stewart was in Home Depot commercials — and it was really fed into a relationship where this sport, and by extension the driver in it, are the face of our brand and we have value in that.Those brands have left NASCAR over the past decade or so, and you're not seeing them really replaced with the same level of iconic brand. A lot of the cars that you see out on the track now are obscure, really more like niche motor racing, or car-related brands, and certainly not the sort of shiny big type of brands that you saw in NASCAR's heyday.That's trouble.That is big trouble, because advertising revenue from having these cars basically be rolling billboards for a particular brand, when the big brands leave, you get less advertising revenue. Since the teams are so dependent on that, that increases their desperation to leverage the charter system as an alternative means of getting revenue.This money bit's fascinating, and I want to get into sponsorship, so we'll get into that in a little bit.But first, I want to get into one other thing real quick, which is NASCAR itself. Most other leagues are large nonprofits, like maybe they're Major League Baseball and they have a century-old antitrust protection. They tend to be organizations that are either owned by the franchises or exist as a not-for-profit that basically serves as an intermediary between the franchises.But NASCAR is just a family business!Yeah, the France family, which goes back to this guy big Bill France who essentially created NASCAR. I mean, there were unaffiliated, loosely-run stock car races in the South before he came along, but he was the one that was able to wrangle together the support of all of those different factions and pull them into one system that then ran a series of circuits that became NASCAR. And it was all centered around things like the Daytona 500, which used to be literally run out on the beach of Daytona, Florida.And they built the Daytona Motor Speedway and they built Talladega, the other huge super speedway in Alabama. And you can see why the France family, and it's now run by his son, that they see it as being an extension of their father's legacy to continue running it. Bill France, he ran things, I don't want to say with an iron fist, but it was what he said went back in the day. A lot of what he chose to do with this sport was responsible for growing it. You couldn't really argue with his choices because the sport was making so much progress.Under the leadership of the rest of his family, though, you can take issue with that, and I think that's why maybe the France family and NASCAR itself as the central organizing body has lost some of their ability to have unchecked power over the sport, because a lot of the decisions that were put into place to try to make the sport more popular and capitalize on its moment of popularity in the 2000s have backfired and drove away the existing fans while not really adding new ones.Fascinating. The money split is wild, because now I want to talk about the tracks, which, I was reading up on it and the tracks get 65 percent of the money from the TV deal. They're a huge factor. And then I read a little more, and it was like there are two track operators. And one of them's NASCAR!I mean NASCAR, when they pay the tracks, they're actually also paying themselves. That goes back to the analogy to a sport like the NFL, where again the teams and drivers want it to be like, "Okay, Joe Gibbs Racing is the Patriots and yeah, Hendrick Motor Sports is the Eagles," or whatever. But NASCAR almost sees it as the tracks are the franchises, because the tracks are where they're actually holding the events, and the teams are just the players. The Eagles can cut some defensive back, but they're still the Eagles afterward.Whereas in the case of the teams, they're like, "Can you really have a sport without Denny Hamlin? Can you have a sport without Martin Truex Jr.?"That's probably the most similar aspect of this fight to the fights that you see in other sports, which are between the owners, who are represented by a Rob Manfred or a Roger Goodell type of commissioner, and the players; the players are making the argument that we are the sport, people come to see us, they don't come to see the laundry that the players are wearing in the form of uniforms.You see parallels of that in this NASCAR spat where it's like, are you really coming for the track or are you coming for the players or for the drivers? And you can see why they are coming for the track in a lot of ways. That's what makes this more complicated, is because the tracks are so ingrained into the culture of the sport. Could you have a NASCAR without a Daytona or a Talladega? The tracks themselves make up so much of the fabric of what we think of as NASCAR.Which is true, but you can have a race without Daytona and the answer is F1. F1 is in Vegas, now they're in Miami; they're eating their lunch domestically. It's interesting that you can watch this, if you look at it very closely, it's like, “Oh yeah, NASCAR totally has the advantage because people come for the tracks, not the drivers.” And then if you take two steps back you're like, "Oh wait, no, there's other racing in the world."Well, and there are other sports as well, and that's really interesting. NASCAR was in a position of real relative power in the mid-2000s. In 2005 I think they were the second-most watched sport in the country behind only the NFL. That was the peak moment of the sport, where all of the big advertisers were in on NASCAR as the fastest growing sport in America.Wow.The story of NASCAR since then has been a story of really steep decline, I think, in both viewership, money from some of those advertisers, and just general fan interest in a lot of ways. The sport is no longer at the peak of its space in the cultural zeitgeist, to say the least. And there are a lot of reasons for that that I think nobody can really fully agree on.Like what?Well, in my opinion, the biggest reason is that they put in trying to capitalize on the success and looking around at the other sports leagues and thinking, "Well, they have playoffs, so we need a playoff system as well. We can't have a situation where some guy is so far ahead in the standings in the last handful of races of the season that why would you watch? We need to manufacture some drama late in the season, the same way that every other sport does with its playoffs."So, they put in this thing called the “Chase for the Cup” starting, I want to say it was in 2004 or 2005, was the first year that they put it in.The problem has been that the rules around the chase keep changing. It's a very convoluted system. If you think about the playoffs in other sports, it's pretty straightforward, right?Yeah.At the end of the regular season, every team that doesn't qualify for the playoffs is eliminated, and then you have head-to-head competitions until you whittle it down to the Super Bowl and whoever wins is the champion.You can't really do that in auto racing because you can't really have a race with two drivers in it. That would be incredibly bizarre. And so, what they do is they still have the eliminated drivers be in the field, and they run the races the same way they would any other race, but the drivers that are qualified for the championship chase just are competing against each other as well. And they get a separate series of playoff points, and then they've added stages—Oh, screw that.Well yeah. They've added stage racing, which is where they put in these competition caution flags three times in the middle of a race, so that they pull the pack back together and you get points for winning the stages that are subpoints within a race. I think one of the valid complaints is that the system has become so convoluted that it's very difficult to keep track of the implications or the stakes.It's not like in football where you can just look at the score and realize, okay, this team is winning and these are the implications. And maybe if I need to, I'll look at the standings and try to come up with the little permutations that people do in week 18 of the NFL season. That's about as complicated as it gets for the other sports. But in NASCAR, it's like that all the time! And even more convoluted because of the points system.I think that has really backfired. It used to just be like you just went out and raced and whoever won the most races or had the most points, that's who won the championship. I do think NASCAR was also a victim of its own success in a certain way, in which you saw in the past the drivers used to be guys like Dale Earnhardt, who was the son of another NASCAR driver, but he grew up in relatively modest circumstances in North Carolina.He was a dyed-in-the-wool racer and he was a man's man and one of those types of guys and he didn't take any crap from anyone. And he wasn't really about the corporate scene. I mean, he was just about doing whatever made sense in the moment as a racer. A lot of guys were that way. It was a very Southern sport and they all came from that shared background.But as the sport became more popular, you saw drivers come from other parts of the country, like Jimmy Johnson and Jeff Gordon before him, but especially Jimmy Johnson, I think, is the poster child for this. He's from California. And when you hear Jimmy Johnson talk, he's kind of boring. He doesn't have that sort of same kind of colorful personality. He's very corporate. He's like, "Well, the Lowe's 48 Chevy did great. My guys put together a great race car for us today and we did the best we could." It's this very robotic type of talking, that I think a lot of the guys have, especially as NASCAR had a higher barrier to entry in terms of finances for a family trying to get their son or a daughter into driving. You had to be rich to be able to participate in this sport when you were young. And then that's the type of people that rise up to the highest level later on.So, a lot of the drivers now, I feel like fans complain that they can't connect with them in the same way because the fan base is fundamentally more of a blue-collar working class type of fan base, more concentrated in the South.They want John Wayne on wheels and they're instead getting the spokesperson for Walmart.Absolutely. I mean, that's a great comparison. I think that they found it more difficult to relate to the drivers. So, when you combine that with the super convoluted playoff system that feels very contrived, and the fact that the playoff system, it produced a lot of Jimmy Johnson titles, he won seven titles, which is tied for the most of all time, and he's arguably the greatest driver ever. But that came at the expense of somebody like Dale Earnhardt Jr. who never actually won a championship despite being the most popular driver and the son of the previous greatest driver of all time, and a guy who really embodied that spirit that has been lost.So, I think you had situations where there was a misalignment between who the champion was and the most popular driver, and just a lot of different changes. I think in a lot of ways, this doesn't get talked about a lot, or maybe as much as it should have, but I think the 2008 financial crisis also played a big role in the decline of NASCAR.Oh, now you have my attention. Go on, what?Well, so NASCAR's fan base was probably affected by that more, just in terms of the region that it's concentrated in and also just the more blue-collar type of fan base, that you saw them probably lose a lot of disposable income and just not have that same ability to attend races, or watch them on television, and they would be less attractive to sponsors as a result of that.You can go back and watch a race and see that it's sponsored by American Century Mortgage or something like that. It's a lot of the stuff that we saw in other sports for sure around that same period of time. But I think NASCAR in particular was in that sweet spot of demographics where the rise of NASCAR was fueled by a lot of the same things that drove the housing bubble and the various other aspects that were not sustainable about that economy. And then it was also taken down by the same things when those evaporated.So, those are my two cents. You'll hear a lot of culture war talk around it as well, where they'll complain that NASCAR has gone woke and all this stuff because they won't let them fly Confederate flags in the infield at races anymore, which was a thing as recently as maybe four or five years ago.Oh boy.I don't buy a lot of that. I think that mostly, it's just really difficult to get people to buy into a sport when they have trouble relating to the drivers, trouble following the standings and the playoff system. I forgot to mention also, the broadcasts have drawn a lot of complaints, especially this year, but I think in general about having commercials during green flag racing, about the fact that the races are really long.Baseball we're seeing as an example of a sport right now that's making a concerted effort to present a more viewer-friendly product that has less downtime and more action and doesn't drag on. And they've been pretty successful so far early in the season with the pitch clock and some of the other things that they've done.Whereas in a NASCAR race, man, you have to be committed to watching this thing for four hours on a Sunday. And that's a pretty big ask, I think! Especially given how many different options people have now for entertainment. I think that is also combined with the fact that maybe millennials are not as into car culture and they're not as into some of the things that maybe people that were drawn to NASCAR were in a previous generation.Off the top of my head, those are all I think probably the most valid reasons why NASCAR has lost its cachet. We're just seeing the effects of it because it's a sport that wants to feel like it's in that same conversation with the NFL and the NBA and the NHL and Major League Baseball. But the numbers don't really bear that out as much.Now, it's still relatively popular. I mean, that's an interesting place for it to be as well. Rumors of NASCAR's decline have in some ways been overstated and in some ways, they're also still trying to claw their way back to where they were in 2005 and not finding a way to move forward and think about 2023 instead.Talking a little bit about sponsors, because I did want to hit that before we wrapped it up, it's interesting because from the perspective of the France family, being a very successful popular regional sport that promotes the venues that you yourself own is a fine outcome for them! But I can understand why for the charters and the cars and the drivers, maybe regional popularity isn't what they want.They look across the ocean and they see F1 being one of those popular sports on the continent. I think you can see that there's a world in which NASCAR can be very lucrative while still not being nationally dominant. But that's not a world that the drivers want to see, and it's not a world that the sponsors would probably want to see. How do the sponsors factor into it?Yeah, the sponsors being a national brand I think is what drives every sports league and their ambitions. I don't think NASCAR, to their credit, they did not rest on those laurels of being a regional sport. In some ways I think the fan base complains that they're almost ignoring the Southern roots of the sport too much by expanding to places across the country and going on these cookie-cutter tracks that ignore the special historical tracks that there are in the South.They're trying to go back and re-appreciate the roots a little bit more. There was a track called North Wilkesboro in North Carolina that got shut down and they moved away from it in, I want to say the '90s. They've actually restored it. And Dale Jr. has actually been a big driving force behind that. And they're going to race there again and they do dirt track races in cup cars, which they used to really never do at Bristol.That was a couple weeks ago as well. So, they're trying to make an appeal to that core base and fan base. But I think there is always this tension in a sport like NASCAR between the original fan base and the Southern roots of the sport, and expanding it is almost your duty as a sports league, to have that ambition to be a bigger brand and capture more of the market share as a league, compared with some of the other leagues that they feel like they're on the same footing with.That tension is probably stronger in NASCAR than any other sport. Maybe you hear a little bit of this in hockey, where it's like, "Why are they expanding to the Sunbelt or the West Coast of the U.S. when they should be concentrating on Canada?" I think that's an interesting parallel for NASCAR because in NASCAR it's like, "Why are they focusing on the rest of the country when they should be focusing on the Southeast?" But you don't hear that in the NFL. There's no talk of, "You should be respecting Canton, Ohio, as the seat of NFL history." You just don't hear that. Or Green Bay, or something.Yeah, I do think that all of these historical factors and the different competing interests come to the fore in NASCAR more than other sports because it's the curse of being either the largest fish in a small pond of the leagues that are under the big, major pro sports leagues, or they're the smallest fish in that huge pond, and they can't really decide which of those they want to be.Fascinating. So now, I think what needs to happen is we need to trade one Canadian hockey team for a racetrack that will be located in Manitoba, just to maximally piss everyone off.I would love to see that. Yeah, I don't think they've raced in Canada. I could be wrong about this. There are street tracks in places like Toronto and Vancouver, where indie cars would race, but I don't think NASCAR has done that. But I wouldn't put it past them.I mean, they're doing a race on the streets of Chicago, which sounds like the execution of the prep for it has been a disaster, but it seems really cool also. And they did a version of it on iRacing, which is a video game, during COVID; they actually broadcast and had real drivers driving the cars virtually on the streets of Chicago, which was the brainchild of it.They're doing some of these gimmicky things that the fan base is pissed off about, but I still think could be cool. I'm of also both minds on it as well, because I love when sports do things that are outside the box and just weird, but hey man, it could be cool, throw something at the wall. That was the spirit of original sports leagues like a hundred years ago, and in some ways we've lost that spirit over time as they've stagnated and become more concentrated on not losing their spot in the pecking order.You could see a sport like NASCAR being more willing to take chances, but sometimes those chances work out well. Sometimes when you shake up your whole playoff system and nobody can keep track of it and it makes no sense and it seems super contrived, they work out poorly.When your playoff system is too heavily mathematical for a FiveThirtyEight sports writer to really engage with, you screwed up badly.Thanks again for coming on. Again, I think it's not a topic that crosses a lot of people's plates all the time, but I think it's a fascinating thing. So, thank you for coming on doing it. Neil, where can folks find you?Well, they can find me at FiveThirtyEight, of course. Some of my overflow ideas are at my Substack, which is neilpaine.substack.com. You can find some of my NASCAR thoughts on there.It's really fun. I like the whole things that are a little bit about messing around and having fun with it, both in sports and in your work, man. It's good stuff. I'm enjoying the Substack.Thank you.Sweet. Thanks for coming on.Thanks for having me.If you have anything you'd like to see in this Sunday special, shoot me an email. Comment below! Thanks for reading, and thanks so much for supporting Numlock.Thank you so much for becoming a paid subscriber! Send links to me on Twitter at @WaltHickey or email me with numbers, tips or feedback at walt@numlock.news.  Get full access to Numlock News at www.numlock.com/subscribe

Jim is joined by Neil Paine, acting sports editor at FiveThirtyEight, to break down the hall of fame candidacy of former NBA shooting guard, Eddie Jones. Jim and Neil first discuss Eddie's quick rise and fall in the Los Angeles Lakers organization before he was shipped to the Charlotte Hornets to make way for a rising shooting guard named Kobe Bryant (4:58). Then, they cover Eddie's performance in the 1998 playoffs, compare him to Manu Ginóbili, and discuss who was the actual better NBA player between Jones and Mitch Richmond (17:24). Finally, they break down Eddie's superior advanced statistics and explain what it all actually means (47:28), before reaching a final verdict on whether or not Eddie belongs in the HOF (1:08:54).

Matt Pauley is joined by Neil Paine, sportswriter at FiveThirtyEight, to discuss his article on the outstanding season Albert Pujols is having in his final year as a pro. Sports Open Line airs weeknights 6-8pm when the Cardinals are off. Join the show by calling or texting (314) 436-7900 or by tweeting to Matt @MattPauleyOnAir.

In the second hour of tonight's Sports Open Line, Matt Pauley discusses the public reaction to the release of next year's MLB schedule, and how it pales in comparison to the NFL and NBA's schedule releases. Matt also emphasizes that the MLB has an umpire problem, and is joined by Neil Paine of FiveThirtyEight.com to revel in the resurgence of Albert Pujols.

You can't say Neil Paine has created a trend with his wardrobe of colourful outfits because nobody else has followed a similar path. Unperturbed he'll continue to set the pace in his role as race day manager for the Waterhouse/Bott yard. Neil joins us on the podcast to talk about his riding career and his current role. He explains the origins of the race day apparel. Neil reflects on the Noumea race fall that ended his very successful riding career. He looks back on a lengthy rehabilitation and the phone call from Gai Waterhouse which would decide his life after race riding. Neil looks back on an association with the stable which began when Tommy Smith regularly provided him with rides. Gai continued to use Neil's services following her father's retirement. He talks about his involvement with trackwork and his role when representing the stable at outside meetings. The former jockey talks of the breach of Covid protocol which landed him in hot water on Golden Slipper day 2020. Neil pays tribute to his father Reg, a former champion country jockey who has been his greatest inspiration. He recalls a short stint in Brisbane under the tutelage of Colin and Pam O'Neill. Neil talks of his apprenticeship at Randwick to former successful trainer Albert McKenna, who had produced two top junior riders previously. Paine has never forgotten his first winning ride at a small Grenfell meeting, and the thrill of his first city win at Rosehill. He bent the rules in crossing from a wide gate. He looks back on a fairy tale win on bush filly Kisses For Kathy in the 1984 Silver Slipper. He remembers the filly's colourful trainer who met with a tragic accident a few years later. Neil still rues his unlucky defeat in the 1985 Epsom. He says it was the one that got away. He recalls an amazing win on a talented mare called Seeker's Gold from the Max Crockett stable. Memories of his first and only Gr 1 success remain vivid. He remembers his Orlando Classic victory for the Hayes stable. Neil thought he had another Gr 1 in the bag when he hit the front on Dandy Andy in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes. It was not to be. He looks back on another stakes win for David Hayes on Eastern Classic in the Hill Stakes. The popular horseman looks back on the most bittersweet experience of his racing career. Adherence to riding instructions cost him a win in the Inglis Classic at Rosehill in 1991- a defeat which cost him the ride on Tierce who would go on to clean sweep the 2YO races through the autumn of that year. Neil talks of his four children and the racing influence in the lives of his daughters Taylor, Sheridan, Shannon and son Blake. He acknowledges a brother-in-law and nephew who have made their marks as jockeys.  

Jim is joined by Neil Paine, senior writer for FiveThirtyEight, to break down the hall of fame candidacy of former New York Yankees Centerfielder, Bernie Williams. Jim and Neil first discuss Bernie's exclusion from being a part of the "Core Four" despite being the best hitter on the Yankees during the late 1990s (5:34). Then, they cover Bernie's performance in both the 1995 and 1996 playoffs, how he compares to a host of past HOFers, and rank him against his 1990s/2000s CF peers (9:49). Finally, they discuss whether or not being a centerfielder for the Yankees hurts his HOF chances due to unfair DiMaggio/Mantle comparisons (37:21), before reaching a final verdict on whether or not Bernie belongs in Cooperstown (44:12). Pod of Fame is sponsored by Stathead, the industry standard for finding and analyzing the statistical history of your favorite sport. Receive $20 off an annual Stathead subscription by using the promo code "FAME" at stathead.com.

Studies show that, when picking between underdogs and the favorite, more people will side with the underdog. So, why are we so drawn to them? And it's not just about sports and politics. It's the human experience. Harry talks to his dear friend Neil Paine of FiveThirtyEight, underdog expert Nadav Goldschmied, and CNN's very own Coy Wire. As a former Buffalo Bills player, Coy knows a thing or two about being underestimated. We also do some serious analysis of who really deserves the title "America's Team." Spoiler: It's not the Cowboys or the Yankees. If you enjoy Margins of Error, CNN would love to hear from you.  Please visit: cnn.com/margins to take a brief survey. To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy

Sharing Sox has been on a jury duty hiatus, but is back with a very special guest, indeed. SSS duty geezer Leigh Allan and his son and west coast correspondent, Will, are joined this week by Neil Paine, senior sportswriter and general editor for the amazing statistical analysis site fivethirtyeight.com. Five Thirty Eight is the product of master statistician Nate Silver, who began the site as a political data analysis entity, but whose background as the creator of PECOTA made adding sports, especially baseball, a natural progression. The site's baseball coverage is extensive — Neil just posted a piece analyzing the difference the change in the ball has made in homers this year, divided by exit velocity — but it is probably best known for its predictions, both on a seasonal basis and for each game. Neil calls baseball the most difficult and random type of predictions they do, in sports or otherwise, but gives a full explanation of how 538 arrives at preseason team ratings, the 10,000 computer simulations they then run to come up with predicted records and playoff probabilities, and how they are able to update those records within moments after a given game is over. Yes, 538 had the White Sox winning the AL Central easily before the season began, and now (before Thursday's finale vs. Boston) gives the Sox just a 37% chance of winning the division (Twins 59%). Neil explains what that means. Neil also gets into what makes 538 give, say, the White Sox a 56% chance of winning a given game, a 43% chance in another one. (Hint: It has a whole lot to do with starting pitchers, and almost nothing to do with a given batter.) So, to find out why predictions go the way they do, give it a listen. And don't worry - it's in baseball fan speak, not stat nerd speak. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Neil Paine talks about Manny Machado's start to the season and just how great the start has been for him and that he thinks he has been the best player in baseball

Neil Paine talks about Manny Machado's start to the season and just how great the start has been for him and that he thinks he has been the best player in baseball

The Sharing Sox special edition with 538 sportswriter, editor and general stats expert Neil Paine has been delayed a week because Neil was at a game that ran long (and was a big Braves win over the Mets and he's from Georgia, so probably had no voice left), so for this week, it's just SSS duty geezer Leigh Allan and his son and west coast correspondent, Will, doing their usual schtick. Well, not usual — with the White Sox on a two-game winning streak, it's exuberant schtick, albeit more in recognition of pitching success than batting accomplishments. The cast was recorded after the first game against That Other Team in Town, the one played in conditions reminiscent of a polar expedition from which no one returned. Will and Leigh get into the excellent performances of Vince Velásquez and Dylan Cease, the horrible failure of hitters — White Sox and otherwise (except for Tim Anderson) — to adjust to the reality of ball and weather challenges, just how much the bad start has altered projections for the Sox for the season, and what possible difficulties the team has coming up. And, of course, there's a report on how absolutely dominating the White Sox are in Will's video game season, led, of course, by pitchers with the initials D.K. and V.V.. Next week, shameless plug Neil should be with us to explain how 538 comes up with its team values, season analyses and game-by-game predictions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jim is joined by Neil Paine, senior writer for FiveThirtyEight, to break down the hall of fame candidacy of former NHL Center Jeremy Roenick. Jim and Neil first discuss Roenick's dominance in the video game "NHL '94" and whether or not Roenick makes video game athlete Mount Rushmore (5:57). Then, they cover Roenick's 1991-1992 season with the Blackhawks, whether game-winning goals matter, and how important winning a Stanley Cup is to a player's HOF case (13:41). Finally, they discuss whether membership in the 500 Goal Club should automatically make you a HOFer (58:54), before reaching a final verdict on whether or not Roenick belongs in the Hockey Hall of Fame (84:37).

On tonight's daily update, Matt Taylor previews Sunday's regular season showdown with the Jaguars and the possible return of wide receiver Parris Campbell. Matt also gets the probabilities and possibilities of the Colts making the playoffs with Neil Paine, general editor and senior sports writer from fivethirtyeight.com.

Hour 2 of Grant and Danny kicks off with Neil Paine from Five Thirty Eight joining to talk about his QB rankings and why he has such high expectations for Ryan Fitzpatrick.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the second hour of "The Killer B's", Jeremy and Joel talk to Neil Paine from Five Thirty Eight about the Astros and Zach Greinke. Jeremy questions Nick Casserio trades and what impact they have had on the franchise thus far. They also speak upon NCAA Investigation of Scott Frost and the top teams in College Football for the upcoming season.

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the one-for-one A's-Marlins swap involving Starling Marte and Jesús Luzardo, Marte's underrated career, and Miami's enviable pitching stockpile, then discuss the circumstances surrounding a potential trade of Max Scherzer. After that (35:21), they talk to FiveThirtyEight senior writer Neil Paine about the factors that affect whether teams add […]

Jim is joined by Neil Paine, senior writer for FiveThirtyEight, to break down the hall of fame candidacy of former NBA point guard Mookie Blaylock. Jim and Neil first talk about the unique connection between Mookie and Pearl Jam (4:22). Then, they cover how advanced metrics favor Blaylock, the misfortune of being in the Eastern Conference playoffs during the 90s, and Mo Cheeks (10:37). Next, they discuss a higher unusual statistic that Blaylock ranks first all-time, his stellar career at Oklahoma, and the tragic consequences of Mookie's off-the-court issues (33:50). Finally, Neil and Jim each build a Mount Rushmore composed of the best defensive point guards in NBA history (50:53), before reaching a final verdict on whether or not Blaylock belongs in the Basketball Hall of Fame (68:25).

Blue Wire's Chase Thomas is joined by FiveThirtyEight's Neil Paine to talk all things NBA Playoffs from the Hawks' surviving Game 1 against the Knicks, to which playoff series are still very much up in the air, to the possibility the Jazz and Suns both go down in Round 1, to how the Lakers even the series against Phoenix, to the Nuggets putting Aaron Gordon on Dame Game 2 and why the Clippers are in real trouble against Dallas. Plus, an in-depth review of Lakers vs. Suns thus far with Andrew Ungvari.

Great to catch up with a young jockey who’s crammed a lot into his 24 years. Regan talks about the impressive win by Ballistic Lover at Rosehill on Saturday May 15th. He reviews the impressive win by Brandenburg in the inaugural running of The Coast at Gosford on May 8th, and future plans for the gelding. Regan talks of his Queensland upbringing and the happy days riding ponies on the Ripley property owned by his paternal grandparents. He talks of the influence of his jockey father Jamie Bayliss who rode 250 winners in the first phase of his career. Regan is still in awe of his father’s decision to move to Victoria when he and brother Jake both expressed a desire to follow in his footsteps. The young horseman looks back on his two phase apprenticeship- initially to Peter Moody and later with Hayes,Hayes and Dabernig. He remembers with affection his flying start as a race rider- a winner at his first attempt. Regan reflects on his first city winner, and his first stakes success. He talks of the thrilling occasion when he rode in a race at Mornington against his brother Jake and father Jamie who was on the comeback trail. The twenty four year old talks of the golden opportunity afforded him by David Hayes to ride the imported sprinter Redkirk Warrior. He still has to pinch himself to believe he won three Melbourne Gr 1’s on the exciting horse and got to ride him on the famous Newmarket course in England. Regan acknowledges a few more Melbourne winners who helped him gain recognition and the Hong Kong season which was marred by a wrist injury. The jockey reveals that he was encouraged to try his luck in Sydney by Randwick trainer Anthony Cummings who continues to support him generously. He talks of two talented Cummings horses Libertini and Mizzy. Regan talks of his chance meeting with partner Sheridan Paine at a Golden Slipper meeting. The daughter of former jockey Neil Paine soon joined him in Melbourne, and later accompanied him to Hong Kong when a surprise offer came up. He talks of his ability to ride lighter than the majority of jockeys, and his resolution to stay in Sydney for the long haul.

Great to catch up with one of the most consistent performers among the Sydney riding ranks. Brenton talks of his lightning visit to Brisbane on the weekend which brought a Gr 2 winner. He reflects on his recent Gr 1 All Aged Stakes win on the Chris Waller trained Kolding. The young jockey remembers his introduction to racing by his bookmaker father Peter, and his early role model among the Melbourne jockeys. Brenton talks of school days and the classmate whose father happened to be a horse trainer. Work experience led him to an apprenticeship. He’s never forgotten his first winning ride. He took two carloads to Bendigo to give him support. The horse won despite a pretty average ride. He talks of his first metropolitan winner in Adelaide and his important initial winner in Melbourne. Brenton recalls the surprise phone call that would bring him to Sydney. He never returned to Melbourne. He remembers the chestnut mare who provided his first two Gr 1 wins and propelled him into the big time in Sydney. Brenton looks back on his two Melbourne Gr 1 winners, a sprinter and a stayer. He won a Lightning Stakes on Snitzerland and a Crown Oaks on the $101 “pop” Lasqueti Spirit. The Oaks story is riveting. The thrill of winning races like the Epsom, Oaks, Lightning Stakes and Randwick Guineas paled into insignificance alongside his Golden Slipper win on Estijaab. This is his day of days so far. He looks back on his golden season in 2017/2018- three individual premierships. Brenton reflects on his three exciting trips to Japan at the invitation of the JRA. The jockey speaks affectionately of his father-in-law, former successful jockey Neil Paine. Brenton acknowledges the support of his wife Taylor and the joy provided by seventeen month old son Hunter who boasts a strong racing pedigree. It’s a relaxed chat with a pleasant young bloke who deserves his spot among Sydney’s top jockeys.

Topics of conversation include:Team of the Week!Who did good trades and who did the bad trades?Your #13!A flawless segue into the next sectionThe Shootout!DekesDangles The perverse incentives in Hockey game points and Neil Paine's modest proposal to fix that.Neil is on twitter @neil_paine, Walt is @WaltHickey, and this podcast is @GoonsPod.We are now on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, find us there, and consider throwing us a rating. Neil's Github is at github.com/neilpaine538. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goons.substack.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is the second episode of A Couple of Goons. Walt Hickey's journey into hockey continues led by the inimitable Neil Paine as we hit week two of A Couple of Goons!Topics of conversation include:Peacock and You: How to cope with the forthcoming death of a pretty good television networkDallas is really good! The Montreal-Columbus trade, or, why centers are good.A Bunch of Lines, With WaltMailbagOffsides: Why Does That Occur?EndgameWe plug our GithubsNeil is on twitter @neil_paine, Walt is @WaltHickey, and this podcast is @GoonsPod. We are now on Apple Podcasts, find us there, and consider throwing us a rating. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goons.substack.com

August 27th, 2018 Neil Paine, of FiveThirtyEight, joined The Program to discuss his piece about how good of a situation Patrick Mahomes is walking into as a starter. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

June 13th, 2018 Neil Paine, of FiveThirtyEight, joined The Program to discuss the comparison between the 2015 Royals and the current Brewers. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

May 3rd, 2018 Neil Paine, of FiveThirtyEight, joined The Program to discuss how tanking is rampant but basically useless across baseball. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Ringer's Ben Lindbergh and Michael Baumann discuss the injuries that forced Clayton Kershaw and Stephen Strasburg to leave their Sunday starts early (02:30), then bring on FiveThirtyEight editor and senior sportswriter Neil Paine to talk about the unusual eliteness of 2017's top teams (10:30), how to evaluate whether a team should buy or sell at the trade deadline (16:00), the teams with the toughest buy/sell decisions this season (38:30), the best matches between contending teams and expendable players (41:00), and the outlook for Aaron Judge (43:30). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices