Moneyball.

Michael Lewis' book Moneyball is being made into a film due out this fall.

While I haven't read the book, I'm familiar with the premise. One of the things discussed in the book is how statistics such as Batting Average (BA) and Earned Run Average (ERA), as well as unit stats (Runs, Hits, RBI's, etc...) are useless and meaningless. They're the old way of doing things, and not the best judge of talent.

I can't possibly agree any more. Fuck.

I'm a guy who loves statistics. I use a plethora of them everyday at work to try and gain some insight into sales. Maybe it's the baseball fan in me, but I've become obsessed with them, as well as the need to find one all-incomposing stat that perfectly describes someone's effectiveness.

I hate BA & ERA. They simply don't make any sense if you're looking to decide who has the best impact at winning ball games. Let's talk about hitting first... BA is simply hits/at bats. It doesn't count at bats that end in a walk... Last time I fucking checked, a runner making it to first would count as a run if he made it home! It also doesn't differentiate between singles and extra base hits.

Then there's Slugging Percentage (SLG). SLG is total bases / at bats. So basically if you hit a triple your SLG is 3.00. Now we`re starting to get somewhere and make some damn sense. However, it also does not include walks.

But there's also something called On Base Percentage (OBS). Finally, a stat that doesn't give a shit how you get on base, just as long as you do. In other words, it counts walks.

So basically we have 3 hitting stats here, 2 of them make sense, the other is a useless piece of shit. One can judge a power hitter or RBI man by his SLG. One could judge a lead off man or a bottom of the order hitter by his OBS... Batting Average seems to be some retarded compromise between the two that clearly isn't a compromise at all... If only there was a way to combine everything that mattered to hitting into one stat so we could clearly determine how effective a player was...

Shit, there already is one?

Oh yeah, it's OPS (On base + Slugging). It's exactly what it sounds like, combining how many times you get on base plus how many fucking bases you get then dividing it by at bats. Sounds perfect right?

Why the hell isn't that THE stat used first and foremost?

My guess is because someone only stated recording it in 1984, meaning we wouldn't be able to compare A-Rod to Mickey Mantle. I think MLB needs to start fucking off. I've seen it in recent years creep into the box stats on televised games, but it's rarely mentioned.

Now what about pitching? ERA is slightly less shitty than BA, but still misses out on a big factor. That is, of course, how did those runners that they allowed to score get on base in the first place?
This is where WHIP comes in handy. Walks + Hits / Innings pitched. I personally like the combination of the two, unfortunately there's no stat that combines them.

Basically, everyone should read Moneyball. Including me

Phở-cking Good.

So I decided to make some Phở.

If you're interested in the chronology of events that led to this culinary adventure, I've been reading Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain. I'm really enjoying the book and have been watching his show No Reservations. Apparently Phở is his favourite dish and he really hyped it up and made it sound good, so I wanted to see what the fuss was about.


Phở is Vietnamese soup. It's hot, it's sour, it's sweet, it's everything.
Turns out there's a few places to get some Phở around Halifax. I looked at reviews and decided Indochine on South Park was a good place to start. First off, their Bahn Mi sandwiches are fucking incredible. I had never had one before, and don't give a flying fuck if they're authentic or not. Amazing.

Anyway, the Phở was pretty good too, very clean and a variety of flavours. Naturally, I wanted to try making it. I looked up some recipes and the process seemed very intriguing. Every recipe seemed to follow the same basic steps. I decided to use this one because it was the highest rated.

Starts off by charring a halved onion, skin and all, and a big hunk of ginger, halved as well, under the broiler, then boiling that in the broth. Odd, but followed instructions. I used some stewing beef shanks with plenty of marrow to boil for the broth instead of bones cause they were cheap as fuck. It also called for the use of a cheesecloth to make a packet for all the spices. I just threw the fuckers in, including some black peppercorns that weren't in the recipe, cause apparently you can't buy cheesecloth anywhere these days. I figured out why cheesecloth was suggested later.

So I boiled up the shitty beef shanks with the charred onion and ginger. The recipe was quite adamant to skim off all the scummy shit that rises to the surface during boiling, this is where the cheesecloth would've been nice cause I had a hard as fuck time skimming out the shit and leaving in the good spices. I managed though. After the boiling and what not, I strained it out well and let it cool. I skimmed off most of the fat that solidified cause I wanted it to taste clean, complex and eventually hot as fuck.

I used bean sprouts, mint, cilantro, green onion, minced green chillies and lime to garnish it, along with some hoisin and a load of Sriracha hot sauce. In the bowls I used thin rice noodles, some shredded beef cooked from the shitty shanks and extremely thin sliced raw round steak, which was eventually cooked by the boiling broth I ladled over it.

The result was fucking awesome. Better than Indochine and will eventually be the best bowl of Phở in the city once I perfect it. I didn't really stick to the measurements at all in the recipe, I did my own thing cause I made a smaller batch and like things "over the top". I put in a little more of everything called for than the recipe stated, plus added black peppercorns for some kick. Next time I'm going to use a fucking gigantic piece of ginger and maybe try out throwing in a bulb of garlic. I like garlic.