Today is all about announcements. We have news from Stacey Brook (co-author of The Wages of Wins), Andrew Feinstein (co-author of Girls&Sports and Opening Lines, Pinky Probes, and L-Bombs , and John W. Davis and Deven Khrucell of Pistonscast.
Two big Stacey Brook announcements.
First, after eleven years at the University of Sioux Falls, Stacey and his family have decided to take a position at the University of Iowa. This position starts in the fall.
And secondly, along with his new position at the University of Iowa, Stacey has also started his own blog.
Stacey tells me that Hawkonomics (very cool name), “will revolve around the undergraduate courses that I teach at Iowa. I am teaching environmental and maybe a natural resources course this coming fall, so I plan on posting about these issues. I plan to keep adding sports stuff no matter what. My hope is that I will have more time to write stuff up since my class load will be much lighter.”
And when Stacey says lighter, he means his teaching load will be much lighter. A heavy teaching load in academia is eight or nine classes per year (I teach seven per year at Cal-State Bakersfield). Stacey’s number was constantly in double figures, with some years surpassing fifteen. So this move means less teaching for Stacey, and that should mean more blog activity.
Although Stacey is not starting at Iowa until the fall, Hawkonomics is already up and running. His first entry is on the NFL labor contract. If I know Stacey, you will see quite a bit on football and hockey (his two favorite sports). So if you like those sports (and who doesn’t), you will like Hawkonomics.
Animated Girls&Sports
Andrew Feinstein – of DenverStiffs fame (and FireGeorgeKarl.com) – is not just another sports blogger. As I noted in March, Feinstein is co-author of the comic strip Girls&Sports and also the book, Opening Lines, Pinky Probes, and L-Bombs. And today I learned (via e-mail from Andy) that Girls&Sports is making its animated debut tonight.
Here is how this is introduced at DenverStiffs:
As most of you probably know, DenverStiffs.com isn’t my real job – just my very passionate pastime! My real job is being a syndicated cartoonist and while I rarely ever talk about it on the blog, I have some big news to share with you.
My comic strip, “Girls & Sports,” is scheduled to make its animation debut TONIGHT at 11pm local time on Fox Sports Net’s BEST DAMN SPORTS SHOW PERIOD. It’s just a one-minute cartoon short, but if the airing goes well Fox Sports will air a new one each week throughout the summer. (You can see samples of what it will look like here).
I’ve really appreciated your support of my blog and I hope you can watch or record tonight’s BEST DAMN show, too. Later this evening, I’ll pass along the URL to their feedback form so you can send them a note if you liked the cartoon.
Pistonscast News
And the last news I have today is about Pistonscast. Yesterday I posted a comment on the Celtics and Pistons. I wrote this post in preparation of my most recent visit to Pistonscast, hosted by John W. Davis and Deven Khrucell. That visit is now on-line. So for those who did not get enough from my column, here is a link to my conversation on the same topic with John and Deven.
As always, it’s great talking Pistons basketball with two fellow fans of Detroit. Although the Pistons lost the first game, we still have faith the Pistons can bounce back. At least, I think I still have faith.
– DJ
Wages of Wins Journal 
John W. Davis
May 21, 2008
Congrats to Stacey and Andrew. Best of luck! As always.. Go Pistons! Detroit Basketball!
Animal_
May 22, 2008
Stacey should cross post here. That would be awesome!
Lane Young
May 25, 2008
I agree with Animal_ that Stacey should cross-post his sports related material here.
Also has Dave seen David Friedman’s critique of the way stats are assigned in the NBA (http://20secondtimeout.blogspot.com/2008/05/manu-is-man-as-spurs-eliminate-hornets.html). This would seem to suggest some problems with the underlying accuracy of WP.