Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- India clashes with China. Part of me wonders if India may be making a play for China's pharmaceutical business.

- Kevin Kelly offers 68 pieces of advice on his 68th birthday. Good stuff.

- Not a fan of Aaron Rogers but this stat does make me feel bad for him.

- How to build a breakthrough - the secret of Backcasting. "The future doesn't happen to us; it happens because of us."

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

People are falling for this Trump Troll Tweet by saying its happened a bunch of times the last 100-years (some even including every quarter its happened). Trump then gets to point out that if it's so common - how come it never happened when Obama was in charge? And please nobody is buying that we are simply living in a continuation of the Obama Economy... It think this is an important message about the courage to do the right thing... OK I'll say it! Aaron Rogers was able to come back last night because of "pliability". All the best QB's are doing it... Speaking of Aaron Rogers - I think the one thing I learned from the first NFL Sunday is that Rogers is OK with people thinking his agent is a douchebag... Rest in peace comic actor Bill Daily who is best remembered as Bob Newhart's neighbor Howard Borden on The Bob Newhart Show and as Major Healey on I Dream of Jeannie... After the tie with the Browns it might be a good time to remind people that Pittsburgh led the NFL with the number of broken tackles allowed last season. This isn't Dick LeBeau's Steeler defense anymore... This message on courage stands alone but also goes hand-in-glove with the message I linked to above...

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Tom Brady is 33-4 (89% winning percentage) when the temperature is below 40 degrees. Aaron Rogers is 16-5 (76% winning percentage). These guys just win in cold weather... Hail Flutie... Yesterday was both Vin Scully's (87) and Mariano Rivera's (45) birthdays. MLB should acknowledge the importance of the birthdays of two of the greatest ambassadors the game has by making their birthday the day when the new Hall of Fame class is announced... Heh heh... So will Colt McCoy replace RGIII in those Subway commercials too?... Matt Damon vs Ben Affleck. I was amused by this more than I should have been... Just a reminder about all those MLB trade rumors columns you read - not one writer had the Josh Donaldson trade from Oakland to Toronto. Take all you read with a grain of salt...

2012 NFL MVP

The other week I mused about if Tom Brady broke Dan Marino's single season passing record but Aaron Rogers led the Green Bay Packers to an undefeated season - which QB would win the MVP? There was a flaw in the question in that Aaron Rogers could both lead the Packers to an unblemished season AND break Marino's record. So Rogers seems to be the pick at this point.

The more I thought about it the more I started thinking of a baseball parallel that could come into play. You might think I would bring to mind Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio the year Mister Coffee had a 56-game hitting streak and the Splendid Splinter hit .406. That 1941 season would be a good analogy since that was also a very contested MVP but the analogy I had in mind was actually from 2002.

That year Pedro Martinez was near unhittable but he ended up losing the AL Cy Young to Barry Zito largely because Zito had more starts than Pedro and that made a big difference to the voters. In 2002 Pedro went 20-4 with a 2.26 ERA in 30 starts while Zito went 23-5 with a 2.75 ERA in 35 starts. Pedro was much more dominating than Zito having 239 K's to Barry's 182 even though Zito pitched 30 more innings yet Zito won the award. The difference was Pedro took some starts off down the stretch because the Red Sox were out of it and that didn't sit well with some voters.

So what does that 2002 baseball season have to do with this year's NFL MVP? Well if Green Bay sews up the best record in the NFC there may be a strong push to rest him up for the playoffs. If his team loses a game, rests him, and Brady breaks Marino's record then those quarters on the bench may be the difference for Rogers between winning the MVP and losing it to Tom Brady.

This is in no way equating Tom Brady to Barry Zito. That would be like equating Barry Zito to Sandy Koufax. The situation from 2002 did strike me as relevant though.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Drew Brees, Aaron Rogers and Tom Brady are all still on pace to break Dan Marino's single season passing mark of 5,084 yards... On this date in 1955, Doc Brown hit his head on the edge of his sink and invented time travel... What type of person gives out pretzels for Halloween?... Happy 59th birthday to basketball original and all-time great Bill Walton... Two women in a canoe happen upon a murmation of starlings... I think part of reason Phil Simms criticized Andrew Luck has to do with Simms' inability to grow a beard... Just want to mention that I was perhaps the first to call Dan Duquette getting interviewed by the Baltimore Orioles. He just may be the most qualified person who actually wants the job... Happy 38th birthday to Johnny Damon. He is just 277 hits away from 3,000 for his career. If he gets to that mark it will be interesting to see if it is enough to get him into the Hall of Fame... I have never seen Back to the Future II or III for that matter. I have no desire whatsoever to do so...

Brett Farve Factoid

Interesting stat from The Cold Hard Football Facts:

Cold, Hard Football Facts: [Aaron] Rodgers completed 18 of 22 passes (81.8%) in his first regular-season start. How many times did Brett Favre complete 80 percent of his passes in his 16 years with Green Bay? Believe it or not, just once: in his very last regular-season game in a Packers uniform. He went 9 of 11 (81.8%) in the 2007 finale against Detroit.

Interesting