The Amtrak World Series

We've had the Subway Series and now we are on the verge of a New York vs Philadelphia World Series. It's a relatively short train trip from New York to Philadelphia. Its even quicker by the Acela Amtrak trains. So perhaps even more appropriately, the Acela World Series. New York is just a 1 hour and 15 minute ride from Philadelpia by Acela. However, by comparison Google Maps says you could drive by car the 108-mile trip from Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx in 1 hour and 44 minutes. Factoring in the taxi and/or subway trips between the train stations and the parks; and weighing the costs of train tickets versus the amount of traffic, driving is likely more efficient. Nevertheless, Amtrak at least has an angle to stake on this potential World Series.

New book co-authored by Magic Johnson and Larry Bird

There are only a few rare cases when two people are able to appropriately title a book "When the Game Was Ours" (Amazon link here just as an fyi as we don't have a pay agreement with them). Larry Bird and Magic Johnson are without question two of those players. In the mid-1980's, the NBA was theirs. And to get the two of them together for a book might make for one of the most interesting sports books in quite some time-- perhaps ever, especially for basketball. Let's not forget that the Michigan State vs Indiana State college basketball national championship in 1979 remains the highest watched nielson rated NCAA title game. Ever. By 1984, just 5 years later, they reinvented the NBA Finals for TV. Must watch games, recounted here. And beyond all that, the book has drama as Magic Johnson details the true break in his friendship toward Isiah Thomas, which went so far that Magic lobbied to keep Isiah off the 1992 Olympics basketball "Dream Team". Wow. And after you have read the book, next March, right around the time of 2010 March Madness, HBO will begin airing a documentary about Larry Bird and Magic Johnson (press release).

Fantasy Basketball 2009-2010 Season

Time to rank the players and sniff out the sleepers. The best site/reads are HoopsHype rumors, HoopsWorld Headlines, and RotoWorld player news. Of course visit CBS NBA and ESPN NBA... from here. Dime has the smack and check out FanHouse too.

Here at Fanbay.net Sports our NBA Fantasy Basketball page includes links to several rankings, depth charts, and statistics. And, we have our own NBA Fantasy "Draft Big" Board (PDF) ranking over 100 players with comments.

As for sleepers, try these links: Top 15 sleeper slideshow, RotoSynthesis, and FanHouse Sleepers.

NASCAR Points and Juan Pablo Montoya

Is there a loophole in the NASCAR Chase points format? Juan Pablo Montoya has been around NASCAR long enough (this is his 3rd full season and he is learning more every race) that he's a legitimate title contender. That's not the issue. The question is that Juan Montoya (official website) is currently ranked 3rd (NASCAR standings here) despite not really matching up in a number of categories.

Let's look. He has not even won 1 race all season. This by itself is not that unusual as 4 Chase contenders have not won. However, the point is that 13 other drivers have won a race. Also, its not the only Montoya weak spot statistically. He has finished in the Top 5 in a race only 6 times through 30 races. Jimmie Johnson and Mark Martin have finished in the Top 5 twice as often. Tony Stewart has finished in the Top five 15 times and won 4 races and yet Montoya is ranked ahead of him? Not only this, Tony Stewart is even less bad than Montoya, finishing worst than 20th just 3 times versus Montoya's 5 bad finishes. So what is it that makes Montoya ranked so high?

The answer is the Chase. Standings are basically reset once the Chase starts (with 10 races to go the top 12 drivers in the standings all have their points reset to 5000 plus 10 for every race they have won-- so, essentially even). Four of Montoya's 7 Top 5 finishes have come in the last 4 races (the first 4 of the Chase). Pretty clutch performance. Still, Tony won 2 weeks ago, but his 14th and 9th finishes in the first two Chase races. If there is a loophole it is consistency. The NASCAR points formula penalizes a winner-take-all mentality. Some more recent chatter about the topic here.

(note Montoya finished 35th in last nights NASCAR race dropping him to 6th)

Denver Broncos 'Throw Them Back' Uniforms

Sadly, it was almost enough reason to justify flipping channels and watching just about anything else. Really, what is the point of the throwback uniform? Are fans supposed to buy them, thereby boosting sales, because people want to own different colored jerseys of their favorite team? The New England Patriots at Denver Broncos game brought throwback to a whole new level of stupidity-- with the multi-striped "jaundiced zebra" pants/sock stirrups?. But anyways, it may have worked by way of yet another win for the now 5-0 Broncos.