.
Time unwound itself as a few "127-Hours" type hikers wandered into the Echo Box to try their luck:
.
.
Dr. D does not know whether rigged San Siro soccer games are considered "conspiracies" and "tinfoil hat society" fodder. But if that's all that is needed to hit the bar and be declared a tinfoil hat wacko, then Dr. D is definitely well-stocked on the Reynolds Wrap.
Dr. D is probably more booked-up on "woo" and "tinfoil hat" shtick than he is on baseball. If there is a taste within this community for Rupert Sheldrake territory, then we're assuming this group of amigos would be front-loaded into that group of denizens who want to enter the Premium Think Tank.
Either here or there, we could definitely deliver the shtick on that shtuff. If you're so inclined, it would probably become the internet's premier site for fair-minded investigation of such themes.
Animal Psi and Telephone Telepathy are not only perfectly feasible, but actually demonstrated scientifically. Whereas the Simulated Moon Landing is perfectly absurd. Dr. D is confident of few things more than he is confident that man is alone in the Milky Way Galaxy (he can't speak for the Andromeda). But he's glad to indulge a smart argument that the Bushes are reptilian aliens; some very intelligent people sincerely believe that. The refutation of stuff like that, if refutations be available, is excellent training in logic.
The other 200 greatest "konspiracy korners" fall somewhere in between Animal Psi and Bush-as-Alien endpoles, and it seems like Dr. D has studied every one of them for quite a few hours each. If you're curious, on occasion, to see an open-minded and literate discussion on these items, they can definitely appear there (or here) once or twice a month.
.
I can give one of 'em up for you right now. As you know, we live to serve.
To place "fixed sports games" into the "woo" category in which Voodoo and The Lost City of Atlantis belong, that is itself konspiracy-krazy. :- )
Of course some sports contests are fixed, and many individuals have been convicted in fair trials of doing so. Of course some major sports leagues have been / are fixed; the desperate attempt to put the NBA and NFL above such things is nothing more than wishful thinking.
Here is an article about the Cowboys-Lions game Sunday. Among 500 comments, the first 4 come from people who are obviously used to scoffing against "Conspiracy Theories:"
.
No I’m not one of those "The NFL rigs the games" people. I’m just baffled and looking for an explanation.
But damned if I’m not reaching a point where there isn’t much that I would put past Goodell.
I do not trust referees decisions when they throw or pick up a flag after a player complains, especially when it comes from an elite team like Dallas. I promise you if a player from Detroit makes this complaint this guys in the zebra shirts would never have picked that flag up.
But they really need to explain what happened there. Why the flag was picked up, why Dez wasn’t called for being on the field.
.
Is it a "conspiracy theory" for SSI to state that Weyerhauser has these corporate policies?
Their execs got into a room and drafted a mission statement. :: shrug :: If Roger Goodell wants to promote those referees who are sensitive to his memos, "Be sure the Lions don't get away with much in this game," what is so logistically far-fetched about that?
And why do the same people who snicker about all "tinfoil hat" theories, themselves charge the CIA with genocide abroad? Would that not be a true conspiracy?
........
There is something disturbing to me on a strictly scientific level. It is this question: How did the U.S.A. get to the point to where all you have to do is snicker, "Conspiracy Theorist!" to shut down all discussion of thought that is not comfortable to certain people with the microphone?
There are a lot of people here who like to think. Take three breaths and think about this. Why did this evolve, and how did it evolve? The answers are all strange, and none of them good.
This Big Lie -- no conspiracies actually exist, no unorthodox thought is correct, and anybody who thinks differently is crazy or stupid -- is itself the single most disquieting Conspiracy that I know of.
What a paradox!
........
As Bill James has pointed out, though, the TV cameras have changed the ballgame. As it pertains to fixing sports contests. Laundry workers all over the internet are airing out the NFL's dirty laundry all day today. There isn't a thing the NFL can do to control the internet. As Dr. D has said, the internet will be either the death or salvation of the techno planet.
Bought-off referees are becoming David Copperfields who are forced to perform in front of slo-mo cameras. They own an increasing share in a shrinking market. The last buggy whip company made the best buggy whip you ever saw. How would you like to be a stockholder in that company? ... :- )
The NBA has been quasi-rigged since at least 1978. (Probably >50% of you readers haven't seen this fun little splice of amazing calls in the Kings-Lakers 2002 series, game 6. The Kings were the people's champs that year, not Shaq and Kobe.)
The NFL fixed the Seahawks' first Super Bowl in a manner more overt than most fixes are done. It was only later that we learned it was as "payback" to Mike Holmgren for breaking code on the prearranged Big Time Wrestling aspect of the sport.
This very season, Pete Carroll waged an OVERT war in the press against the NFL's konspiracy, er unannounced corporate policy against his team. The TV camera angles and the internet will go against the NFL's intent to find "plausibly denied" judgment calls against the Seahawks. It will be a whale of a contest.
The tinfoil hats don't go onto the heads of people who roll their eyes at the NFL and NBA. The tinfoil hats go onto the heads of people who believe that crying "Conspiracy Theory!," solves an issue then and there. It's like the folks who want to use "neocon" or "commie" or "climate change denier" to win a debate with a label and a scoff. They are trying to suppress real idea exchange.
What is REAL is --- > REAL. The more frictionless the idea exchange, the faster the truth surfaces. You can suppress truth for 1,000 years -- the Catholics of the Middle Ages, who were different from today's Catholics, did -- but the grass will always grow through the cracks in your driveway.
A human being can really sense being stared at, or she cannot. The question is not decided by "scientific consensus" or any other popularity contest. It is decided by facts and research.
........
There have been studies that prove that MLB umpires have a much, MUCH tougher time impacting games than do MLB referees. With QuesTec, that factor is approaching zero. (Not at zero, and not very near zero. But approaching it as time goes on.)
Rigged games ruin the product. MLB's product is almost completely intact. Baseball isn't the best sport, not by a long shot, but it is likely to become the only sport left. In a roundabout way, that makes it the best sport.
Pitchers and catchers report shortly,
Dr D
And not just because i was rooting for Seattle. I hate...hate...HATE...injustice. That is why i get so darned angry at the various biases that exist in baseball. Milton Bradley was a jerk but he was right about the umps ripping him off...both because the umps do indeed have unconscious racial biases and because they disliked him. Until baseball computerizes the strike zone,there is still not justice.
When Mariner pitchers get squeezed, is there some sort of racial bias present?
Is there no white hitter who gets striked zoned to death? If there is, is racial bias at play there?
Do all black hitters face an expanded strike zone?
Steady as she goes....
moe
Of course my suggestion was completely tongue-in-cheek. Or was it? What was an entirely spontaneous attempt at a joke might be viewed differently by a psychoanalyst who discerns some deeper subconscious motivation behind it, one that is real despite being inscrutable apart from specialized probing. There can be conspiracies even in one's own mind!
JK, again.
I'd be interested.
The hardball times did a study which appeared to prove the hypothesis that umpires have subconscious racial preferences for members of their own race. Black umps favor black players, white umps favor white players and Latino umps favor Latino players.
http://www.hardballtimes.com/are-umpires-racist/
Which refutes the earlier HBT article. The conclusion is that there is really no discernable bias....
And a great quote from the article:
If there is bias is it a big deal?
Not really. Guy, commenting at Baseball Think Factory made the following observation:
For example, a black pitcher gets the call 30.62% of the time, with these racial “disparities”: W Ump: 30.61, H ump: 30.77, B Ump: 30.76. So, if a black pitcher was judged by a same-race (black) ump 91% of the time (as white pitchers now are), he would gain one extra called strike for every 784 called pitches. A starter has about 50 called pitches per start, so a black starter might get 2 more strike calls in a season. Let’s be generous and say that results in 1 fewer walk (or 1 more K) each year (it’s probably less than that), in which case he would give up 1 additional run every 3 years or so.
Steady as she goes,
moe
One thing is for certain - that crew cannot be allowed to officiate another game in these playoffs.
Without a doubt those subconscious tendencies exist. The question becomes whether the CONSCIOUS anti-bias cancels it, or trumps it, or what.
The pool of MLB umps is a small one, and not representative of society, and well-trained; that their "diversity" training might trump their "lizard brains" is an interesting question. Looks like you two have a couple of interesting reads as to where the final outcome wound up.
:- )
So they aren't raising fists in the air with heads down when one of "their" pitchers gets declared innocent on a ball-strike call? :- )
Glad to see that we're pretty well on top of it in baseball. ... I'd be interested to hear what James thinks about the calls Bob Gibson got, or didn't get. Seems to me that even back in the 1950's the umping was *in routine situations* fairly even-handed, but I could be wrong.
Moe, do you remember whether the strike zones in the 60's and 70's seemed racist to you? I don't remember much that bothered me back in the day. ... Sports have a way of integrating people.
BTW: I didn't think it was interference (Remember: Face Guarding is a foul in college ball but not the NFL). Still don't.
Was surprised a flag was thrown. Once thrown, I was surprised it was picked up.
Like you say, Doc, running down some of these ideas logically can prove quite stimulating and productive in terms of sharpening one's own problem-solving abilities.
It's not just conspiracy theories that deserve this treatment. There are things like Artificial Intelligence that have some rally, really smart people like Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking alarmed. Musk likened it to 'summoning a demon'. I would love to see a vigorous DOV style discussion about topics like that - the futurist stuff.
...the number of minority umps in the 60's and 70's would constitute the definition of 'small sample size'.
There is ample photographic and video evidence all over the internet that demonstrates the push against the receiver's shoulder before the ball ever got there. That was the initial call--clear contact beyond five yards, not face guarding.
But the head linesman had a 'better view'--from his perspective, probably did not see that contact, and overruled on the basis of an assumed face guard call.
In history, there is an endless list of penalties that occurred that weren't called.
And a similar list for calls that were made that didn't happen.
But this was the most egregious error I can remember in more than a half century of watching. A flag thrown and enforced, with the yardage marked off. Only to have it suddenly disappear--without explanation.
One for the record books. I can only imagine the local outrage if that call had been made against Pete's boys.
On what basis do we conclude that baseball 'is not the best sport'?
I am not sure if pass interfere was warranted or not - I can agree that is was a judgment call... but missing the POINT of EMPHASIS call of holding / illegal contact 8 yards before is blatantly wrong... and to allow a player come scream at an official without his helmet off in the field of play, especially a Dez Bryant so you know the official knows that Dez came off the bench... and to completely ignore that long winded, fully animated and ILLEGAL demonstration is showing complete bias. There are very few stars that could get away with that... and I doubt ANY Seahawk could.
The fact that people from the Officials head office were partying with Cowboy management in August only makes this look worse.
The Seahawks are gonna get screwed by the officials when they play either Dallas or Green Bay. GUARANTEED!
Fantastic counter link...I was not up on the most recent research...and believe, I was very pleased to read this.
Anyone who says baseball is not the best sport is selling it way short
A lot of hypotheticals here, but if NE and Seattle met in this years SB and the Hawks won, would that constitute a changing of the guard for the QB position?
There is absolutely nothing more fascinating than thinking about the universe. I know the point of the article wasn't about whether we are alone, but am genuinely curious why you're sure that we are alone in our galaxy. Please do elaborate.