One way to alleviate the April snowout problem would be to abandon the unbalanced schedule--if this weren't Seattle's only visit to Cleveland this season, for instance, they could make up at least some (and perhaps all) of the snowouts on their next visit later in the year. As it is, they will all have to be crammed into the two teams' common travel days or made up after the season.

Another happy byproduct of such a schedule would be the elimination of regular season interleague play (apologies to all of you excited about, say, that boffo Indians-Nationals series coming up in late June).

The records of all a league's teams would be more directly comparable, too, since no one would have played a disproportionate number of games against either the dregs or the elite teams.

I think you're getting a little too wrapped up in one play here. At the end of a game, on the road, a team is better off going for the win rather than the tie.

On the other hand, we can take LeBron to task for his lack of aggressiveness earlier in the game; had he taken more shots and forced the action then, his team likely would not have been trailing by two with a few seconds left. So I agree with your overall premise. Shooting too little can be as selfish as shooting too much.

As others have noted, there appear to be some significant problems with the study....but let's assume that its conclusions are true. Isn't the solution a simple matter of installing QuesTec in every ballpark?

I'm actually unsure why MLB hasn't mandated that already, as it would help reduce strike zone bias of any sort, racial or otherwise, and you would think a uniform strike zone across both leagues would be a worthwhile development in and of itself.

It's "Peleliu", not "Pelileu".

Today's column repeatedly notes (and rightly so) that the Cowboys have not faced tough opposition yet this season; however, you neglect to mention that the same holds true for the Patriots, whose five opponents thus far have a combined record of 7-17--a .292 winning percentage.

I'm not going to get too excited about either of these squads until they face a few teams with winning records.

But I think "Gu-TEAR-ess" is a better approximation of how Gutierrez should be pronounced.

What everyone is seeming to overlook is what should be the Patriots' overriding concern--NFL players get injured all the time, in most cases not due to cheap shots but simply the violent nature of the sport. Every play the starters are in once the game is well in hand is increasing their injury risk (no matter how slightly) for no reason.

I'm guessing New England's running up the score on the Division III teams of the league will last just up to the moment one of their stars gets hurt while playing during garbage time.

Super Bowl IV, in New Orleans, was played in wet conditions under a hurricane watch.

And in fact, if you can scroll your minds all the way back to....last season, you'll recall the Super Bowl was played in pouring rain. Remember how concerned we were that Prince might get electrocuted?

A lot is being made of the Twins' $100 million offer being turned down by Santana. In fact, as Twins uber-blogger Aaron Gleeman and others have noted, Santana was very open to signing a five-year, $100-million extension with the team prior to the 2007 season, but either former GM Terry Ryan or the wealthiest owner in major league baseball, Carl Pohlad, decided they couldn't be bothered. Either way, the Twins have no one but themselves to blame for the necessity of trading Johan.

As far as the package of players the Twins received for Santana, I think Smith overplayed his hand. With the departure of Torii Hunter the Twins have a desperate need for a ML centerfielder, as well as a high-quality pitching prospect, which both the Red Sox and Yankees' reported offers included. The Twins would have been well-advised to take one of those offers over the minor-league outfielder and handful of middling pitcher prospects (Minnesota has at least a half-dozen guys just like them in their minor-league system already) they got from the Mets.

On my pool bracket Western Kentucky is listed as a 12th seed, not a 13th.

If the situations are as analogous as the first few pages make it sound, perhaps the Manchus' prescriptions to fix ancient China's ills could help ameliorate our modern-day troubles as well?

"A sizable portion of the crowd was chanting “Ozzy! Ozzy!” The band on stage obliged them by playing Judas Priest’s “Breakin’ the Law.” The Ozzy chants meant only, “play another song”. "

Localized versions of foreign subcultures are fascinating.

The quoted article says that the increase in fertilizer price is due to a run-up in the price of natural gas. Assuming that all the phosphate producers use a similar process to make the fertilizer, wouldn't it actually be the cost of natural gas that was to blame for higher prices, rather than any sort of collusion among fertilizer makers?

Whether the officials are fixing games or just lousy, it doesn't look good either way. Occam's razor would suggest in most cases it boils down to simple incompetence.

To me, the real trouble started ten years ago, when the NBA fired several veteran referees after a tax-evasion scandal having to do with downgrading first-class airline tickets. I thought the quality of NBA officiating declined markedly thereafter--there simply weren't enough veteran officials left to adequately break in all the new refs, which resulted in a wild inconsistency in how games were called from one crew to the next--and has never recovered.

Maybe King is just a big Judas Priest fan.

Talk about a place not doing their fair share!