Since there hasn't been much activity here in a while, I thought I'd
post this. It's part of Jerry Greene's sports column in today's
Orlando Sentinel...


Top 10 Sports Things We Don't Understand

10. Soccer scoring. OK, we're starting slow because, if you can't
understand "one-nil," there's no need for you to read the rest.

9. Balls and strikes. Again, not too tough if you can count to four.
Although nobody knows why we don't say "strikes and balls" other
than it sounds funny.

8. Bowling. Now it's getting tougher what with a strike being worth
10 pins plus the pinfall on the next two balls. So do what I do --
just put down your weight as your score. Works for me.

7. Ice skating/boxing. The scoring in these sports is different
because it's subjective. For our purposes, the definition
of "subjective" is "a score influenced by a judge's views,
experience, background, threats or bribes."

6. Golf's adjusted stroke average. I have no idea what the PGA Tour
means when it uses this stat. When I'm playing it means my final
score will either match the number of strokes taken or the
temperature on the course, whichever is lower.

5. NASCAR's points system. Until this year, the system actually was
easy to understand. But somebody pointed out there was no cheatin'
involved, so NASCAR changed the rules "in the best interest of the
game."

4. ERA. Baseball says this stands for "earned run average," which is
supposed to be how many earned runs a pitcher gives up over nine
innings. But when's the last time you saw a pitcher go nine innings,
so what's the point?

3. RPI. Now we're officially in the Twilight Zone. College
basketball says this stands for "ratings percentage index," whatever
that means. It's a number they make up so they can fill our brackets
any way they want, and what are we going to say? "Hey, I think
Vanderbilt's RPI is way too high!"

2. NFL passer rating. This number has something to do with a
quarterback's pass completion percentage, ratio of touchdowns to
pass attempts, average distance per pass and number of intercepted
passes. If you want to learn more, it is the basis behind the best
seller "The Da Vinci Code."

And the toughest of them all:

1. The BCS. Don't even try. There are things Man is not meant to
know now that we have machines to make our decisions.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/columnists/orl-
sptgreene31033104mar31,1,4526739.column?coll=orl-home-utility-sports
(subscribers only however)

Rob in Orlando
www.orangejack.com