Hey there—welcome to my sports blog. My name is Doug Eickman, and I’m a junior here at Amherst. This is my first entry here at Amherst Public, so I hope you are enjoying the site, and that you will continue to read my random sports musings as I post every week. This week is a bit of an introduction, but feel free to heckle me (or contribute positively) by posting in response..  

A few things you should know about me before reading my column: first, I am a Mets, Jets, Knicks, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, and St. John’s Red Storm fan. If you can’t tell, I’m used to rooting for losers. Of all the teams I have ever supported, only the Amherst Lord Jeffs have ever won a major championship (St. John’s won the NIT a few years back). I have lived through the Isiah Thomas era, I have survived the worst of Armando Benitez in the 2000 World Series, the best of So Taguchi in the 2006 NLCS, the wobbly throws of Chad Pennington, a 1-17 St. John’s season, and oh yeah, the worst collapse in MLB history. Even my intramural basketball team went 3-9 this year. If I seem like a bitter sports fan, it’s because I am.    

I don’t believe in clutch. It’s possibly the most overrated and meaningless word in sports today. Professional athletes, generally speaking, do not perform any better or worse in so called ‘big time’ situations. Derek Jeter’s career batting average in close and late situations is actually lower than his career batting average. David Ortiz is a great hitter in the 9^th inning because he is a damn good hitter in the other 8. Anyone who thinks a Manning could never win a Super Bowl or that Brady was unbeatable needs a history lesson. Did anyone see Robert Horry hit that buzzer beater a few weeks back? No? Oh yeah, he missed. Curses? Baloney. Experience? Completely overrated (See 2003 Marlins). Momentum? Somewhat important, particularly for individual players, but often overstated (See 2005 Red Sox).

So what do I believe in? Well, apart from the 3-4 (certainly the superior defence), I believe thoroughly in the power of statistics. VORP, BABIP, Adjusted Plus-Minus, they’re all great. I like my opinions to be backed up with fact, and I’d prefer to say that a team is great because they’re point differential is off the chart than because I saw them once on ESPN and I thought they were scrappy. Statistics are a way I can follow every team in the country without spending my life in front of a TV screen. I understand that stats are limited—no, they cannot pick up everything on the court, in the field, or on the pitch. But stats remind us of what is really going on—yes, David Eckstein may have been great in the 2006 World Series, but he is still a .286 career hitter with no power.

That garbage out of the way, I’d like to say thanks for reading, and that I hope you disagree/agree strongly with everything presented thus far. Since this is not just a column but a blog, I would like this to be discussion oriented–there really is nothing better than arguing about sports. There’s plenty going on in the sports world to keep our brains busy, and I hope we can have some good debate on the eternal questions in sports (many of which I’ve already mentioned): does clutch exist? Will the Cubs ever win a World Series? What’s better, the 3-4 or the 4-3? Is golf even a sport? Do sumo wrestlers really need to wear only those thong things? Is Tyler Hansbrough better than Michael Beasley? Who is more evil, the Yankees or Red Sox? Does Ozzie Guillen smoke crack? I don’t claim to be a great sports writer, or even the most knowledgeable fan out there, but I hope my column will provoke some response every week, and I always promise to be opinionated, and probably somewhat controversial.

This has been a little content-light, so let’s dive right in to one of my favorite questions: Kobe or LeBron? This season in particular, I don’t even see how this is really a fair question: LeBron is simply the best player in the league, hands down. No disrespect to what Kobe has done for the last decade, but LeBron’s numbers are silly—the dude is averaging over 30 a game, while pulling down 8 boards and 7 assists daily. That’s Oscar Robertson ridiculous. Kobe is scoring less (albeit on a team with more scoring options) and not even coming close in other categories. The only thing he has on LBJ is steals, and only barely. While I would admit Kobe is probably a marginally better on the ball defender than LeBron, the latter’s size and strength mean he has a more positive impact defensively—more blocks, more misdirected shots, etc.

But Kobe is better late in games and in the playoffs, you say? The playoffs point is both unfair, and as far as we know, untrue. Kobe (like pretty much everybody) plays pretty much the same in the playoffs, posting career playoff scoring totals just below his regular season totals, as well as fairly consistent steal, assists, and rebound totals. LeBron, in just two appearances, has done the same, averaging around 27 a game come playoff time. And if anyone saw that series against Detroit last year, no one carried their team more than LBJ last playoffs. That Cleveland team had no business being anywhere near the finals. And, oh yeah, LeBron absolutely made the right call dishing to Donyell Marshell.