Posts by Shane Ryan

  • MoneyBrackets: A 15-Step Guide to Conquering March Madness

    What mistakes do most Americans make when they pick their brackets? And how can we take advantage of those mistakes to crush them completely?

  • College Hoops Hype Meter: Which Freshmen Should You Get Excited About?

    Start at the bottom and work your way up to the point when the hype meter starts vibrating like Tom Crean after he spots an ice cream truck.

  • The End of a Brilliant Summer: Rory at the Ryder Cup

    As iconic moments go, a few stood out in Europe’s emphatic, 16.5-11.5 Ryder Cup victory in Gleneagles. There was, of course, the clincher — Jamie Donaldson’s wedge on 15 that stopped two feet from the pin, setting off a champagne party on the green. There was Patrick Reed’s lip-out from two feet that allowed the European pair of Martin Kaymer […]

  • The Ryder Cup Preview: Massive, Unhinged, Scottish

    Your preview, in a year when the European juggernaut rolls in with seven victories in the last nine Cups and nobody gives the visiting Americans a shot in hell.

  • PitchCraft: The 2014 Year-End GIF Awards

    Today is the biggest day in the PitchCraft calendar, and I’ll be damned if I see it corrupted by jokery. The year-end awards are upon us, and anything less than a sober, scrupulous account of the season’s best pitches would be a callous show of disrespect to The Game.

  • PitchCraft: Clayton Kershaw, the World’s Best Pitcher

    This is the biggest moment in PitchCraft history, and I’m afraid I’m not worthy. Clayton Kershaw is the greatest pitcher of our generation, a force so dominant that even a historically great ace like Felix Hernandez stands in his shadow.

  • PitchCraft: Doug Fister, the Quiet National

    I have a deep affection for any pitcher who manages to put up consistently strong numbers while failing to average 90 mph on his fastball. To me, it automatically implies a kind of genius, and also a clever, subversive streak. To be born without all the natural advantages and still make outs against hitters who should be salivating at the slow speeds is like giving the middle finger to genetics and beauty. Or something.

  • Handicapping the Ryder Cup Captain’s Picks

    For golf nerds, this is the only chance to second-guess a momentous decision that doesn’t involve going for a green in two or switching irons at the last moment because of a phantom wind gust. This is Selection Sunday combined with the NFL draft combined with a third thing that hasn’t yet been invented but which itself combines elements of patriotism, anticipation, scorn, disbelief, and, finally, relief or anger.

  • PitchCraft: Max Scherzer, Professor Whiffs-n-Wins

    (Our usual GIF-related thanks go out to Nick Pollack at Pitcher GIFs, a great follow for all your pitching needs.) Dear World: Is it cool that we haven’t done a PitchCraft on the guy who is tied for the AL lead in wins and is tied for second in strikeouts, won last year’s Cy Young, […]

  • Rory McIlroy Becomes Iconic at the PGA Championship

    Euphoric surges, rabid crowds, remorseless comebacks, and the crowning of a new icon in a sport that had lost its king … we’d been waiting for this Sunday all year.

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