Dribbles and Drop Shots

I became a lifelong Phillies fan on July 11, 2009, the day I went to my first MLB game with my family. With the home team down 7-3 in the bottom of the ninth, the game had been exciting yet unmemorable. People began streaming for the exits as dark clouds formed ominously over the field. Maybe if they hurried they could make it to their cars before the downpour. Matt Stairs' lead-off home-run brought the crowd to life but hardly altered the inevitable. Jimmy Rollins walked and stole second, but Shane Victorino's flyout to center left them two outs from defeat. When Chase Utley singled there was hope: Ryan Howard came up to bat, a year removed from his triumphant 2008 postseason run and a year ahead of signing arguably the worst contract in baseball, a deal that would doom the franchise to years of futility long after their championship window closed. But 2009 Ryan Howard was still one of the most feared power hitters in the game, and the Pittsburgh pitcher looked vulnerable. ...

The U.S. Open begins next week, an exciting moment for dedicated followers of the "NextGen" youth movement in men's tennis. The under 25 crowd of up-and-comers has yet to break through at a major, with Dominic Thiem's emergence as the world's second best clay court player coinciding with his graduation into a mid-twenties "not quite veteran," lacking the potential to truly challenge the decade-plus period of dominance of Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic. Older players have  gone deep in slams during the reign of the big three, but Stan Wawrinka, Marin Cilic, and Kevin Anderson enjoyed success in finite spurts, never threatening to upset the long-term status quo. Andy Murray's run from 2011-2016  represents a notable exception, though that period featured more of a "big 2" than a "big 4:" Djokovic won eleven majors, Nadal claimed five despite several injuries, and Federer and Murray together had only four (the same as Wawrinka and Cili...

Hello! Welcome to my new blog. If you are reading this, it's probably either because you like sports or you like me... and hopefully both! I am very excited to have a place to write down all the sports-related thoughts that go through my head: a sizable supply, given that I read through the ESPN app at least three times a day, paying special attention to the NBA, men's and women's tennis, college basketball and football, the NFL, the MLB, and the always exciting PGA Tour.  I check scores and standings for in-season sports daily (at the moment: tennis and baseball) and usually catch a few minutes of highlights for all the biggest events. I regularly glance through fivethirtyeight for a more analytical perspective (statistics really pop with some good ol' multicolored graphics!) and often spend idle time googling random athletes to learn more about their current stats and historical achievements. In short, I may not always know what I'm talking about, but I probably k...