On a national stage, American sports still triumph because we admire our athletes just a little bit more.. I was perusing insideSTL yesterday (God, that Tuesday Cardinal writer is good), and the site’s owner and Mizzou “alum” Tim McKernan (a few credit hours short of removing those quote marks) said there are some openings for new writers, including their new Mizzou section. You’d be writing columns in similar fashion to what we do here, only a little more extensive and in-depth – but not funnier, that’s impossible.One of the cool things about insideSTL is that McKernan puts out open job postings like this, and I’m sure some of our readers would be a good fit there And, hey, it’s a paid gig. There is one mini catch:The writers for the Missouri and Illinois sections will be required to live in Columbia and Champaign, respectively. And, all of the other sections [Blues, Rams, SLU] will require writers living in the St.

Louis area.If you’re interested, click the link and email Tim about applying. Writing over there has been a fun experience, and you won’t have to worry about any #&$ censorship (I’m so controversial).I suppose you could also apply to write for us here at Mizzourah, but we won’t pay you, and you’ll have to win a chicken wing eating contest vs. all of us, followed by an American Gladiators-type Eliminator challenge. Then, we’ll consider whether or not you’re worthy.And if you choose to apply and need someone to edit your sample article, we can take a look at it. I’m sure between the four of us, somebody had to go to an English class once or twice (but most likely, we’ll look at each other like this.). In the past, both Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart have had a pretty good records at Sonoma along with other wins to back it up but this season both Gordon and Stewart have two zeroes in the win column. Stewart has 2 career wins at Sonoma and Gordon has 5 wins but needless to say this has not been their best season.

Gordon is 9 in the points and with a best finish this season of 2nd, where as Stewart is 11th in the points and with a season best finish of 3rd. Also they have both had their share of large wrecks this season such as when Gordon hit this inside retaining wall very hard at Las Vegas, and Stewart getting involved in a large wreck at Dover. Both men are eagerly awaiting to be in Victory Lane this season but only time will tell when or how long it will take for that to happen..  Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees is making more money this year than the entire Florida Marlins team. This is an astounding fact in itself, especially considering the Marlins have been the better team for most of the year; but it is even more disturbing if you consider the value A-Rod actually adds to the Yankees. Of course he is widely considered the best player in the league, and he is on pace to break every offensive record ever set as long as he stays healthy… but how much has he really improved the teams he has played for? Each player on a team, in some way contributes to the success of that team and, intuitively it seems, individual success for a player should imply positive contributions to team success.

However, Alex Rodriguez is a perfect contradiction to this hypothesis.To analyze A-Rod’s contribution to his team throughout his career, I did a simple before-and-after comparison of consecutive seasons where he switched teams. He began his career in 1994 with the Seattle Mariners; however he did not earn significant playing time until 1996. In 2001 A-Rod was traded to the Texas Rangers, where he stayed three seasons until joining the New York Yankees in 2004. Following the hypothesis that A-Rod should provide positive value to his team, and assuming all other factors to be equal: A-Rod leaving a team should cause that team to be worse the next season and A-Rod joining a team should likewise bring improvement.

  However, the actual pattern is largely the opposite of what we expect. The year after Rodriguez left the Mariners, they raised their win total by 25 games, tying the Major League record for most regular season wins in the process. One year after A-Rod departed the Rangers’ team, Texas upped their win total by 18 games. They went from win totals in the low 70’s for all of A-Rod’s tenure to just barely missing the playoffs. There is no real jump present for the Rangers or Yankees to indicate improvement after A-Rod has joined a team either. Texas won two more games with A-Rod than without, and the Yankees win total stayed exactly the same.A little more analysis shows the Rangers and Yankees actually performed worse once Rodriguez joined The Rangers were a division powerhouse prior to his arrival. They won 95 games two years before adding A-Rod, and won at least 88 games in three of the last five years without him.The effect of Rodriguez on the Yankees is even more intriguing.