Red Sox Playoff Trivia

Win Probability Added (WPA) measures a baseball player's contribution to the probability that his team wins a given game. So it's a situational stat that takes into account only the context and the result. If you strike out in the first inning, you might decrease your team's chance of winning by 2 percentage points, and therefore get a WPA of -0.02 for that event. If you come up to bat in the bottom of the 9th with 2 outs, behind by 1 run, and hit a 2-run walkoff HR, you might increase your team's chances of winning from, say, 30% to 100%, and you'd get a WPA of 0.70 for that event. Similarly, if the pitcher strikes you out to end the game in that plate appearance, he would get a WPA of 0.30.

So here's the trivia question: What 2 Red Sox players led the team in WPA in games 4 and 5, respectively, of the 2004 ALCS?

Your only hint: The answer is NOT David Ortiz, for either game. In each game, Ortiz finished 2nd on the Red Sox in WPA.

PLAYOFFS

The Red Sox are in the playoffs for the first time in 4 years! It's time to get excited. If you need help doing so, I suggest watching this video:

http://youtu.be/hkblpPxLrcw

Wedding pictures from Aunt Judy

A first glimpse

Taking out the trash.

Part 1:

Part 2:

He got it there eventually.

Bonus video, in which Jamie (with a heavy cold) forgets the word for doggie:

As usual, videos are in much better quality on Youtube.

Accordion Magic

Jamie can drive stick!

Recent discoveries

The youngest cousin, Olivia, who turned three on August 4:

Olivia and her warm, lovely mother Misha:

Olivia kayaking with her proud dad:

And then, a week later, the Bonneville Salt Flats:

Not far off, the legendary Bonneville Speedway underwater, because it had rained the day before we visited:

 Insane people driving through the salt water on the Speedway.  We saw sedans, a UHaul truck and a pickup truck towing a trailer roaring through the water kicking up wakes like speedboats, all of which emerged soaked and coated irreparably with salt, but driven nonetheless by elated people wearing maniacal grins:

The most stunning vast empty lovely place on earth, on the Utah/Nevada border a few miles west of the salt flats on a back road only a short way from the Interstate.  We saw pronghorn antelope, an eagle wheeling slowly overhead, and immeasurable distances in a great stillness where there was no one but us:

Your father triumphant after scaling a butte (zoom in, you'll find him):

And a mustang in the stunning Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge in the northwest corner of Nevada:

 Tonight, Klamath Falls, Oregon.  Tomorrow, Crater Lake, and Sunday, Molly's wedding.

Wedding shower!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy 85th birthday, Mom!