Sports Then and Now

After recent struggles, Andy Roddick regained top form in 2009.

This article is the third in a series which talks about how the players fared in the 2009 season…

Amongst the likes of Federer, Rafa, Murray, Nole, Davydenko and Del Potro; Andy Roddick would stand out. These players might have won Masters’ events and tournaments, a trio even managing to grab and bifurcate the four slams between them, but yet, Roddick holds his own place in their midst.

The season might have started off as being Murray and Rafa centric, deviating towards Federer in the middle of the season and later on towards Nole, Del Potro and Davydenko but when it comes to Roddick, it can be said that he has been steadily consistent throughout the season—more often than not maintaining a very low profile, before injury claimed him as its victim.

Starting right off from Doha in January until Montreal in August, excluding the slams, Andy’s performance bracket veers mostly either as a semifinalist or as a finalist; not to mention the fact that post his victory at Memphis, he became the only active player along with Federer to have won at least one ATP tour title for nine consecutive years.

Read the rest of this entry →

By Buddy Biancalana and Steve Yellin

I just returned from the Winter Baseball Meetings in Indianapolis.  The gathering is always an interesting few days for

OBP and OBS are the key baseball stats of the 2000's

me due to my partner, Steven Yellin, and my working to introduce new methods of teaching sports.

Baseball traditionalists, as one general manger told me are very slow to change, whether it has to do with technology or something pertaining to training techniques.  I understand the resistance to new ways in our fast changing world.

A day doesn’t pass for me that I don’t think that I should be taking greater advantage of social media. I know it’s the quickest and most economical way to spread information, but I still don’t utilize it to the degree I could and should. Why? No good reason, except that I just haven’t decided to stretch myself in that direction yet.

Another interesting experience for me at the Meetings was looking around and seeing so many “non baseball looking” people.   The Geeks as we know have infiltrated baseball and have brought great creativity, analytical methods and knowledge. Read the rest of this entry →