Sunday, October 16, 2005

What happens in Amherst stays in Amherst

I am up at this ungodly hour (it's an un-Elder Godly hour too, for that matter) to catch an early flight to Hartford, from whence I will take ground transportation to Amherst, Mass to visit a collaborator (whose brother gave 5 talks at Caltech this week!). We are finishing up a BEC paper. One of my friends from college is actually on the author list for this paper as well, so that's pretty cool.

Not that anything will happen in Amherst. It only has lots of college students in a town with nothing much to do... (Meanwhile, I'll be working on my research. What did you think I'd be doing?)

Time to back up my computer for my trip...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't know if the news has made it to Amherst yet, but the Astros now have a 3-1 lead.

Could they fold?

Yeah.

But I don't see how just at the moment.

Mason said...

Certainly, they are in excellent shape now. Today was the game they were least likely to win, and now they have three excellent pitchers for the next 3 games.

Had they lost, the 2/3 deal would given them a decent chance, but I would have favored the Cardinals (slightly) because of home-field advantage. In 2004 (and I think it's true this year, but I haven't checked), many of the Astros hitters had heavy home-road splits (for some, at least, from the short porches). I don't think that would have been a huge effect but it would change who I think would have won 2/3. Now, it's looking very good for the Astros. (Not that it was bad at 2-1, because it wasn't, but it looks good.)

Any reason for folding would begin and end with small sample size. With only 3 games, anything can happen.